Videos - Tesla, Aptera, Peter Diamandis

Happy New Year! A couple of videos this time, featuring Tesla, Aptera and Peter Diamandis.

Tesla & Aptera talk about the automotive bailout and themselves.

Tesla wants the bailout to happen, but wants the $15B to be returned to the fund for auto innovation. Any funds they get will go strictly towards the sedan, not the roadster.

Aptera wants a bailout as well, because they depend on American based auto suppliers. Their big problem right now is low gas prices - orders are dropping. Also, tight credit is hitting them. They have 3,700 orders for the first Aptera, which they plan to fulfill starting in late 2009. Note that this is a full year behind their original plan. If they achieve the new date they will still be doing better than most automotive startups, including Tesla :-)

Peter Diamandis (pictured after a bailout joke) backstage at EG 08. "The way we transport ourselves today is basically lazy... we use an 80 year old technology". The article links to his 20 minute talk at EG itself - start watching at 15:30 for Automotive X Prize material. Bionic human prize coming soon!