Can I go five hours without writing a Tesla story? No! I'd probably get an iron deficiency or something. In any event, the company cleared up the General Electric mystery today. Elon Musk, the vague-yet-chatty CEO of the company, told Car & Driver that GE was committed to invest in Tesla. But by the time the article came out, GE had backed away. Something to do with an economic downturn. Others picked the investment. Just in case you were wondering. We're still waiting for the official verification that the company does have its loan from the government. Other recent statements from Mr. Musk: 1. Fifteen. That's the number of years a man can turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn't see. 2. What the world needs now, is love, sweet love. 3. I came, I saw, I conquered, but not necessarily in that order. 4. You knew all along, didn't you Dr. Zaius?

AT&T has offered up its wireless network to carry smart grid traffic with SmartSynch. Verizon also wants to get into home energy control. So do British Telecom and Bell Canada, according to sources. And my gut tells me Comcast, the big cable provider might be next. I came across this idea during a field trip to Oakland's Lucid Design Group, which has come up with a console for monitoring electricity, gas and water. The company has created an elegant interface that lets consumers and/or users study their resource consumption, carbon dioxide output, utility expenses and other data. It's an impressive piece of software. Universities such as Emory have already installed it in several buildings. Check it out on the link. Here's an example. Lucid's panel doesn't control power consumption -- it is built for the "power awareness" market says co-founder  Michael Murray -- but it can be linked into demand response and control systems. The company grew out of a project at Oberlin and has spread largely by word-of-mouth to several campuses. So why the Comcast reference? There's lot of data here. The data also builds dynamically. When you want to check electricity consumption, the numbers roll up before your eyes. It's sort of like watching the weigh-in for The Biggest Loser. Very entertaining. It looks really good on a large 42-inch TV. Cramming it onto a small console or onto a thermostat would lose something. Thus, Comcast or some other cable provider could begin to offer a channel to subscribers that would show their energy consumption. No need to put a small LCD on the wall. Just turn to channel 996 or something like that to see how much water you are wasting. By linking it with a demand response program, Comcast could drive revenue and reduce customer churn. Granted, there would be some wiring shenanigans that would have to take place in the home, but that's true for any smart grid/demand response deployment in the home. Just a thought.

Somehow, it seems appropriate that "Weird Al" Yankovic is the first celebrity mention for the Model S, the family car that Tesla hopes to release in 2011. "Just put a deposit down on a Tesla Model S. Yay, I get a new car in... 3 to 5 years!" wrote the composer of "Another One Rides the Bus," "Eat It" and other modern classics on his Twitter feed. The Tesla Roadster, the $109,000 sports car, has already long been a status symbol among the elite. Owners include Dustin Hoffman, George Clooney, Sergey Brin and Sam Perry. (Sam let Oprah cry on him after the Obama election, so he's sort of a drive-by celebrity, like Squeaky Fromme, but what the hell.) The Model S will be cheaper, so people like Paula Abdul, Bob Denver and Jimmie J.J. Walker will be able to afford it. It will sell for $49,900 after the $7,500 tax credit. But that's the 160-mile range version, the one that will require TWO charging stops between San Francisco and Disneyland. Tesla has not released prices on the 230-mile and 300-mile range cars.

Detroit Electric says it's back on track and will produce 270,000 electric vehicles a year by 2012 with its new Malaysian partner. The company is working with Proton Holdings Berhad to produce electric town cars as well as "extended range" cars, i.e., cars that can go 200 miles and serve as more than commuters. The price targets are $23,000 for the town car and $33,000 for the extended range car. The car will be based around gas-burning cars designed by Proton. A couple of companies are trying to cut the costs of electrics by using a car assembled essentially by Chinese manufacturers or manufacturers in emerging markets. Wheelgo and Miles Automotive are both on the same path. Will it work? Will Americans go for Chinese or Malaysian cars? Proponents say yes -- look at Japanese car sales. Critics say no -- look at the sales and public perception of South Korean cars. The fates here are somewhat divergent. Detroit, though, also comes with its own special history. The company is trying to resurrect a brand from the turn of the last century. It made electric cars from 1907 to 1939.  In 1917, an all-electric Detroit might cost you anywhere from $1,775 to $2,375. It could go 60 to 100 miles on a charge and get all the way up to 25 miles an hour. "No other bridal present means so much, expresses so perfectly what you mean to say," one ad read. Huzzah! Plummeting gas prices, however, made gas cars more popular. Then the 1929 stock market crash killed it. In 2007, Detroit CEO Albert Lam and Zap's Steve Scheider teamed up to bring the name back. China's Youngman Automobile Group was going to make it. In the Summer of 2008, the alliance changed: Zap sold its interest in the business in exchange for $750,000 and the North American distribution rights. Zap has a long history of changing business plans. At the time, Detroit said it would look for European investors and technology. Stay tuned.