Inside Line recently got a friendly call from a Tesla spokesperson who was positively bursting with the good news: Porsche had purchased a Tesla Roadster. And though its always nice to make a sale, the Tesla flack was clearly more interested in the PR benefits of Porsche engineers studying the $120k roadster. “A Porsche senior engineer actually came over a few weeks back, and he was seriously analyzing the car in every detail,” dishes the Tesla source. Separately, a “German source” tells Inside Line that Porsche is “none too pleased” with the recently-released eRuf, a lithium-ion-powered electric Carrera. So what does this all add up to? Porsche’s building a lithium-ion sportscar. After all, they’re not buying a Tesla to study their customer service. According to the Tesla spokesperson, Porsche’s order is “pretty far down on the list of current orders.” Chances are we’ll see an EV Porsche on the Nordschleife before Tesla makes its way down that notoriously interminable waiting list.

The new electric-powered MINI E has the same shape, size and style of a regular MINI. In other words, the MINI E is small. This creates a dilemma: lithium-ion batteries that are large enough to power a car are big. BMW has tackled this problem as only a team of engineers could: by removing virtually every square centimeter of usable space from the vehicle. It’s fortunate if you have no friends or children, because the back seat has been replaced by a rather prominent, sizable hump. Cargo space in the hatch area is adequate– as long as your shopping needs are limited to the occasional six-pack and baguette. Then again, who cares? The Mini E is a limited production evaluation vehicle available to just 500 early adopters, whose enthusiasm will burnish the brand but good. In case any ultimate drivers are interested, BMW claims a 150-mile range, 2.5-hour recharge time, and a 0 – 60 time of 8.5 seconds from its 204hp motor, with a top-speed limited to 95 mph (to avoid range claims in the double digits).

BMW’s re-launch of the MINI brand stateside was a marketing meisterstück. From focused billboards to user-friendly showrooms to a “cheeky” website– MINI never put a foot wrong. Their timing was impeccable, launching the anti-SUV just as SUVs became showroom anti-matter. Needless to say, the brand is now showing signs of losing the plot. A MINI Clubfoot? What’s that all about? A MINI SUV? Just as SUVs get stuck in the tarpit of a market meltdown? Now you might think that a EV MINI couldn’t miss. Well, it missed the gas price bubble. And it also missed the lesson of GM’s EV1– a product killed by a lack of range, a lack of interior space and long recharge times. On MINIspace, MINI’s mini MINI site, MINI’s Head of Project i (why not iMINI instead of the awkward MINI-E?) spills the beans. Ulrich Kranz reveals the hard facts about the 500 EV mules for which bleeding edge environmentalists will surrender their left testicle. “[Drivers will achieve] 240 kilometres if you drive at a moderate pace or 200 kilometres using the motor’s full output.” All this in a small car– without rear seats. (those belong to the li-on batteries). That’s 0 for 2. Recharge time? “The fastest way of charging the battery fully is using a wallbox supplied to all 500 MINI E drivers. The wallbox is installed in the driver’s garage and enables a higher amperage, which ensures extremely short charging times. Indeed, the wallbox takes no more than two and a half hours to charge up the battery.” So how long without the “did the lights just go dim again?” box? Crickets chirping. EV fans may line-up around the block, but I reckon they’ll eventually form a circle.

Curious about how things are progressing on the Volt front? Want to know all about how the Volt team “weighed each metric by importance and factored in what Volt vehicle-line executive Tony Posawatz diplomatically calls “qualitative factors,” such as, Are we going to hate working with these guys?” when choosing a battery supplier? Popular Science has a monster piece on the moon shot’s moon shot entitled Power Struggle that will answer all your questions about the Volt’s battery. Except for who’s going to make it and what the actual specs are. You will, however, learn that “It was a different proposition for the EV1,” according to Jon Bereisa, the chief of propulsion on the EV1 and an early instigator for the Chevy Volt. “The battery technology was not there and we knew it, but we believed that we could make up for it by designing a highly efficient car. You could say we nailed it. But we really did not achieve commercial viability.” And one analyst warns “the battery is too big, too expensive, and we are concerned about the life of the battery, the liability risk and the warranty’ — that’s what I hear at every car company I’ve gone to for the last nine years, and now I’m going to go to plug-in hybrids? The batteries are five times bigger, five times more expensive. The liability risk is five times more, or 10 times more.”

While TTAC has Tesla on a Death Watch, aspiring Chinese EV-automaker BYD is getting massive street cred in The People’s Republic. In case you’ve got something called a life, BYD stands for “Build Your Dreams.” Since late September, “BYD” also stands for “Buffet’s Yankee Dollars.” Omaha’s Oracle liked the company so much he wrote a check for $230m for a 9.89 percent stake. [NB: Buffet knows the tax consequences lurking in a CFC— and we’re not talking chlorofluorocarbons.] Based in Shenzen, BYD is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of rechargeable batteries for cell phones. According to The New York Times, “the company also has a fast-growing auto-making unit that accounts for nearly a third of its revenue and makes fuel-efficient compact and subcompact cars for the Chinese market.” They have some bitchin hybrid and plug-in cars in the works with specs that scare the BYDickens out of the competition– if they’re half true. OK, make the jump for today’s BYDispatches.

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We don’t print blog entries from anonymous sources. Unless we do. I received this email this AM and thought it was worth sharing with the group. I’ve contacted the author for his Christian (Muslim, whatever) name. It looks like we may have another TTAC blogger in the pipeline. Which is a lot less painful than it sounds. At least for me… “Alright, so I’m a dinosaur that reads print media…I find it’s easier to wipe Toaster Strudel grease off on a paper than my keyboard. Anyway, this morning I happened upon a local-yocal feel good story about a Spokane, WA company building electric cars. Now, as you will see, the cars look like the result of a Club Car & Yugo late-night hook-up. However, I was struck by two very odd things: First, the Tango is apparently very popular w/Ebay schmucks, Microsofties & even George Clooney (he’s so freakin’ dreamy) and second, it sells for the same price as a Tesla (well, if Tesla sold sold cars). Could it be that a Spokane car company is a trend setter?

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Interesting letter to the editor from a guy in Baytown, Texas in this week’s Automotive News. “Chevrolet should give an electric generator for home use to the purchaser of every new Volt,” Ralph Buerklin wrote. “Hurricanes, ice storms, tornados and thunderstorms wreak havoc with above-ground electric lines. That is an Achilles’ heel for electric vehicles.” Tell me about it. While the Volt has an on-board ICE to rely upon, a pure EV is a whole ‘nother story. We have a generator.  We need it anywhere from two to five times a year here in semi-Upstate New York just to run the water pump, the furnace and the refrigerator—forget about lights, TV or computers. It typically happens when thunderstorms blow tree limbs across power lines, and if there are two things we have lots of, it’s thunderstorms and trees. Every 10 years or so, there’s a late-fall or early-spring ice storm that pulls down all the electric lines in entire counties. Last time it happened, some Hudson Valley homes were totally without power for two weeks and more.  I can do without TV, but I’d hate to be stuck in a dark house with a dead electric car. Nor do I think those little portable job-site generators can do the job. Our 4,000-watt generator dies from too much current draw if the furnace and water pump come on simultaneously, which is why we’re upgrading to a 10,000-watt propane- powered unit. The new one will be the size of a St. Bernard’s doghouse, and installation is not a trivial matter. So add one of those to your Volt options list, since I doubt the guys who live in Grosse Pointe even know how to spell “emergency generator.”

CAR Magazine reports that Rolls-Royce CEO Tom Purves thinks an EV Phantom is worth looking into. “Many of our customers do small mileages exclusively in the city,” says Purves. “For these customers, an electric Rolls-Royce would be ideal.” Where did Purves come up with this wacky scheme? From Rolls-Royce’s corporate overlords at BMW, of course. Specifically, Purves recently drove the German concern’s MINI E EV and was “bowled over by it,” describing it as “superb: quiet, fast and fantastic fun.” And Purves for one thinks an EV Roller would fit in just fine with the firm’s history and branding. “We stand for unmatched refinement and you can’t get a quieter and less intrusive engine than a well engineered electric motor. Truly, the loudest noise you would hear would be the tick of the clock,” he says, referencing the time-honored Rolls marketing {gimmick} message. “We also stand for strong and instant torque – and an electric motor delivers maximum torque instantly. The ‘waftability’ would be fantastic.” Besides, emissions standards might leave Rolls with little choice but to offer a zero-emissions option. But don’t cry for future Phantom owners, as the V12 option will always be available. In fact, Purves reckons many Phantom customers would buy both – an electric Rolls for urban use and petrol Rolls for longer journeys. And why wouldn’t they?

In this breathless interview by an adoring newswoman, Elon Musk says that the Tesla Roadster is doing great! And that Tesla’s OEM supply business is doing great! And that the Silicon Valley electric vehicle maker (retrofitter? is slowing down on WhiteElephant sedan development because it’s the fiscally prudent thing to do so. Musk anticipates some cheap government capital in six months (courtesy of tax payers just like you), so why raise more money now? In other words of wisdom, Tesla’ self-appointed CEO says falling gas prices aren’t a concern for the company’s business plan because gas prices “aren’t the main reason” for buying a hot sports car which is “environmentally friendly.” (Hint: it’s all about green cred.) Officially, Musk has “no comment” about specific time frames for an IPO, but says it’s “within the realm of possibilities” that Tesla will fleece more investors let outsiders buy a piece of the automaker’s mean, green dream sometime next year. Meanwhile, if your idea of great reporting is a newsbabe hanging on every word of a sanctimonious rich guy, today’s your lucky day.

GM is preparing (and preparing) to put its faith in some form of Lithium-ion batteries from some manufacturer at some point for its Hail Mary-shaped plug-in electric – gas hybrid Chevy Volt. Meanwhile, Noburu Kikuchi, the Director of Toyota’s NA Research Institute, says his employer isn’t abandoning ye olde nickel-metal-hydride battery anytime soon. “The auto maker’s goal is to begin selling 1 million HEVs annually in the next decade and to offer hybrid powertrains in every vehicle in its lineup in 2020-2030,” WardsAuto reports. But what percentage of those will be built with more advanced and still largely unproven Li-ion batteries, ‘I really can’t say…  But in the near future, if you look at it realistically, we have accumulated so much technology in NiMH that simply giving up (on that) might not be a good idea.'” Does that sound, I dunno, realistic? Well, there’s more common sense after the jump.

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The New York Times reports that a casualty of lower oil and gas prices: interest in funding renewable energy projects. Among the Times’ laundry list of programs hurting for money: Tesla (duh), corn ethanol (hooray), other biofuels, and wind and solar power. The financial troubles are the consequence of a pretty simple financial concept – that there’s only so much money to go around. And we hear there’s a credit crunch in progress. So with gas and oil coming down in price, renewable energy isn’t where opportunistic investors want to be risking their somewhat-limited resources. The depressing part of the story is this all-too-obvious observation from Times writer Clifford Kraus:

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Car And Driver is bucking its Detroit-loving rep by running a blog post by Steve Siler that is just a little bit critical of Chevy’s Volt EREV. “With the splashy reveal safely behind us, we’ve taken several opportunities to look more critically at the Volt, studying the design, crawling around inside, and interviewing—make that interrogating—many of those responsible for making it a reality, including Bob Lutz, vice president of global product development, and Jon Lauckner, vice president of global project management. They all promise a game-changer certainly for GM, and over time, possibly the world,” writes Siler. “Still,” run-on sentences aside, Siler reckons that “a reality check is in order.” Siler bemoans the clutchless shift from concept styling to production model, saying “Bye-Bye, Gangsta-Mini. Hello, Sensible Sedan.” “Frankly, we think (the production model) comes across pretty awful in pictures, but we can attest that it appears well proportioned and convincingly cool in person: the details indeed carry the day,” says Siler. The post goes on to call the Volt’s iPod-ripoff interior “a little gimmicky,” and savages the Volt for not offering enough interior room for a dog. No word though on the Volt’s likely astronomical price-tag or government-subsidized production. Still, even the most mild criticism of the Volt is worth noting when it comes from a publication that’s as Detroit-friendly as C/D.

It’s cruel, I tell you, cruel! The moment Autoblog’s Sam Abuelsamid steps out of the office for an all-expenses-paid transcontinuental trek in a diesel Audi, green auto news hits the autoblosphere, rendering his journey something less than interesting. No wait, I mean, important. Or is it both? Anyway, in this case, Audi– the self same company that organized this non-event– have announced that they’re going to build an electric-powered version of their up! up! with people! minicar. “Last week at the Paris Motor Show, management board member Peter Schwarzenbauer reportedly confirmed that again to Britain’s AutoCar magazine.” And who covers this development, and leaves Mr. Abuelsamid’s Day 3 report off its AM Autoblog blogroll? Autobloggreen! When the guys back at the office ignore you on the third day of your story, you know you’ve been SITB. Hey Sam! How about blogging this bad boy for us? I mean if the highest average speed was 51mph, and you’re going from NYC to CA via Chicago, there’s still plenty of time left.

Alex Molinaroli, president of Johnson Controls’ Power Solutions business, echoes one of TTAC’s ongoing beefs with the U.S. auto industry: Attention Deficit Disorder. Molinaroli tells Automotive News [sub] that “automobile manufacturers are not going to be able to afford to keep investing in all these different technologies,” referring to the “gas-friendly to gas-free” approach to alternative energy vehicles. Molinaroli’s got a prescription for companies who can’t decide whether hydrogen, biofuel, compressed-air, electric or hybrid cars will be the future: hybrid and electric, baby. “You see the long-term r&d effort focused on the electric car. That’s where the real strategic efforts are. People talk about fuel cells, but I don’t really see the kind of energy and effort around that that I see around the electric power train.” Of course it makes sense that Molinaroli would Molina-roll that way; his firm is currently developing Mercedes-Benz’s hybrid S-Class.  Stil, pop those Adderalls boys, the future’s electric.