Greentech Media

Tesla has received plenty of attention for bringing much-needed sex appeal to green cars - and it deserves it. For too long, electric cars have been relegated to "neighborhood car" status. By switching gears and targeting the top of the market, instead of the bottom, Tesla's found an attractive, potentially game-changing approach.

Today, the auto industry is scattered in too many directions, with flex-fuel, biodiesel, hybrid and even natural gas, among the many. Tesla's potential to reroute the industry to one in which electricity might be the rule, rather than the exception, is too good a story to pass up. Tesla backers, including Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and PayPal and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, clearly think so too.

And it's not just hype. The company has real performance credibility (0-100 kph/60 mph in a little more than four seconds), and the corporate understanding that appearance and usability matter.

We can't help but feel that Tesla can make a significant impact on the auto industry by offering up sporty cars that true enthusiasts want to own. True, the price is steep. But this opening gambit can payoff handsomely if the company can translate their celebrity appeal today into mass market appeal tomorrow for their upcoming line of more traditional sedans. Tesla isn't alone, of course. There's Venturi, Zap, Phoenix Motorcars, Think! Nordic, Miles Automotive and Reva. But with Tesla's positioning around performance first, practicality second and a potentially lucrative side business in batteries, Tesla appears to be the smartest driver in the race.