The Electric Stars 154
a design competition, it had no safety systems, and it was
expensive. But it was fast. When the car competed with a
famous sports car, the Dodge Viper, the tzero had a better
acceleration.^33
Elon has always liked cars. He has owned, among
others, a 2007 Porsche 911 Turbo, a Hamann BMW, an Audi
Q7, the 1967 Series 1 E-type “bad girlfriend” Jaguar, and of
course the McLaren F1.^4 He used the Porsche as a family
car. Two of his children could sit in the tiny back seat.^190
But electricity didn’t power any of these cars.
Cars are the type of transportation that consumes the
most oil. Out of the 20 million barrels of oil consumed each
day in the US, cars are using 25 percent, light trucks are
using 18 percent, heavy trucks are using 16 percent, and
airplanes are using 6 percent. When there’s no more oil
to fill the gasoline vehicles, then we have no other choice
than to choose another type of fuel. Elon’s prophecy is that
peak oil will happen in 2020, so he believes a majority of all
new cars manufactured in year 2030 will be pure electric.
20 years after that, a majority of all cars on the roads will
be pure electric.^360 “There may be something cooler than
a car in 20 years, but the most likely outcome is that we’ll
still have cars and they’ll be predominantly electric,” Elon
said.^316
Alternatives such as ethanol or fuel-cells are not good
enough compared with the electric alternative. Ethanol
may work in countries where there’s plenty of room to