My part time job with a few great rides. 2014 Shelby parked in the sold lot. The sound was like a thunderous herd. It never wants first gear and seeks second right away...
The i8 is a hybrid - so not exactly a Tesla competitor, but I like that car a lot, it is very pretty. But, getting in it is absurd, the door seal is too wide and too tall. There is no easy way to get into this car. The i3 is available as either a full-EV or with a range-extender (Hybrid). It is not as pretty, but is actually a much more interesting car imho. If they had better rear doors - we would have got one for my wife, but the way the rear doors are designed on the i3 - it is very hard to pick and drop kids on school runs - so we went with an e-Golf as her EV car.
The car may have been designed and sculpted especially for millionaire athletes that can fit into it (like jockeys and female basketball players) or stockbrokers that need to express themselves as their sole means for a show off. It was impressive as my crew gawked at it. It sure beat the fleets of Subaru's and Honda's we parked in the same lot.
I think both of these cars were designed as experimental vehicles first and as low-production use of their carbon-plastic chassis design - it is basically a way to test new materials which are very light but not super-expensive (compared to carbon fiber). This is probably why they had to compromise with the size of the seal on one and the door mechanism on the other - to ensure that the cars are stiff enough and can handle normal use and pass crash tests (they do not want a repeat of the Z8 fiasco where the aluminum frame twists making some of these cars write-offs if they have some kinds of impacts). I am sure that with time you will see them improve the techniques to make these materials better suited for every-day cars. I said that these cars are very interesting from a technology POV - and this is the reason. The i3 is 2,600 lbs only in pure EV form. This is unheard of for a modern 4 seat car, especially an EV with a heavy battery pack. In comparison, our e-Golf (which is a fantastic car) which has the same interior volume is 800 lbs heavier. Last time you could buy a proper 4 seat car that was in this weight range in the US was in the early 90s, cars like the Nissan Sentra or BMW 318i from 1991 for example, of course, these cars had awful crash ratings compared to new cars.
On the other hand the first batch of 50 EV's that GM reclaimed and destroyed was a purposeful attempt to sabotage. Ed Begley must still see that car in his dreams.
The desert wildflowers are blooming after the recent storms. Coyote Canyon in the Anza Borrego desert.