The Electric Stars 161
When the Prius drivers returned home, they also had
a Porsche or a similar expensive gasoline car parked in
their garage. Eberhard realized a market existed for a sports
car with the same performance as a Porsche and at the
same time was more environmental friendly than the Prius
- aPorschiusas he called it.^345 The average income of
the EV1 drivers was above $200 000 per year. Since they
couldn’t drive the EV1 anymore, maybe they would buy a
Porschius? Or maybe they needed an electric motorcycle?
But the market for such as bike wasn’t as interesting as the
market for electric cars.^453
The Prius had both a battery and a gasoline engine,
but the battery couldn’t charge when the owner parked the
car. “Without plug-in capability, a hybrid is just a gasoline
powered car with some fancy hardware,” Eberhard said. He
nicknamed the Priusdork mobile. Elon had the same ideas.
“You could have the entire country driving the Prius and
we’d still be addicted to oil,” Elon said. “When you create a
hybrid, you’re designing an amphibian – and an amphibian
is going to be a worse fish than a fish, and a worse mouse
than a mouse or whatever creature you want to pick.”^197
Elon nicknamed the Priusgas-guzzling hog.
Eberhard and Tarpenning examined the electric car
market, mainly with the help of a Google search and by
ordering brochures on eBay. They came to the same con-
clusions as Elon had when he did a similar market research.
Electric power is the future because electricity gives you the
highest efficiency and performance compared with other
alternatives.^345 Hydrogen fuel-cells, natural gas, hybrid