Your Next Economy Car…

...If You’re Spending More Than $100,000

Eric Wesoff March 05, 2010

Eric Wesoff

Editor-at-Large
Greentech Media

Eric Wesoff is Editor-at-Large at Greentech Media. Prior to joining GTM, Eric Wesoff founded Sage Marketing Partners in 2000 to provide sales and marketing-consulting services to venture-capital firms and their portfolio companies in the alternative energy and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Wesoff has become a well-known, respected authority and speaker in these fields.

His expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley's premier venture capitalists.

Spring is coming and it's time to re-up on your wheels. But being green is important to you as part of your conspicuous consumption. Here are some of your automotive options:

There's the staid all-electric Tesla.

But now, the IPO-hopeful Tesla has some competition looming on the horizon in the luxury class. Yes, the Porsche and Ferrari are hybrids, but fuel economy is not really the issue when you're spending this kind of money. This is just feel-good green. Can Tesla compete against these long-time car manufacturers that have a brand and a history? Mercedes does have a stake in Tesla, and Tesla might need that century of automotive manufacturing knowledge to keep up with the Johannses.

Porsche is now in play with the Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid.

Here's a a video.

If you want red and Italian -- the hybrid version of the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano is the way to go. The '599' in the model name refers to the 620 horsepower 5.99 liter V-12 engine, now augmented by an electric motor, a lithium-ion battery pack and a flywheel-powered Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS). The hybrid development was spurred by the cry of cash-strapped Ferrari owners trying to get a few more miles per gallon. And this Ferrari delivers -- offering 11.75 miles per gallon, up from the usual 8.7 miles per gallon. The masters of Maranello strike again.

And for puttering around town and bringing the kids and dogs to soccer practice -- there's the 700hp (522kW) Lightning GT with nano-titanate batteries from Altair Nano.