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Michael Thwaite is a petrol-head who became a volt-head after seeing "Who Killed the Electric Car?" He's not sure he'll ever go back.

The Tesla Roadster goes more than 200 miles (380 km) on a single charge. The average person drives about 40 miles (60km) in a day. This leaves a range of about 160 miles (257km) after an average day of driving in a Tesla Roadster. Meaning that at the end of the day when a Roadster is plugged in to be charged up, it is really only to top off the battery.

Why is this significant?

It is important to understand the amount of energy a battery draws when charging and how this affects the electricity grid.

I’m a Realtor from Greenwich, CT and I’ve been passionately following the development of electric vehicles for over ten years. I voted with my wallet in November of 2007 with a $5,000 deposit on a Tesla Roadster since it was by far the best alternative for me then, and it still is today. My Roadster was delivered on July 27, 2009 after the Plycar driver notified me that he was approaching my house. My wife, Ann, and son, Scott, pictured below were very excited to receive this present from the automotive gods.

Nearly 150 lucky customers took ownership of their Tesla Roadsters in 2008, but 2009 could be the best year yet for new owners, thanks to a wide range of tax incentives in the United States that in some cases shave 10 percent or more off the cost of the car.

Ten years ago when I was driving an EV1, one of the best perks was free parking and charging at LAX. I would pull into one of the EV parking places by Terminal One, plug in, and go on my trip. The charger would turn on right away – typically this would be in the middle of the day – and the battery pack would be fully charged even before my plane had left the ground. When I would return a few days later, typically at night, the battery pack would have partially self-discharged and was cold soaked, having sat for days with the charger connected but off.

Michael "Flea" Balzary likes to break new ground. With band mates Red Hot Chili Peppers, he pioneered funk metal, a sound that marries aspects of funk and hip-hop with traditional rock. He applied the same innovative spirit to his ride and now holds a reservation for a 2008 model year Tesla Roadster. In October, as part of our ongoing customer drive program, Michael got behind the wheel of our prototype Tesla Roadster. What follows is his feedback from the driving experience. As always, customer drive opinions are unedited by Tesla Motors.

Jon Mittelhauser is one of the early developers of the World Wide Web. As a Master’s student at the University of Illinois, he co-wrote the first widely used web browser, NCSA Mosaic, and helped to define many of the earliest web protocols. Upon earning his Master’s degree for the work on Mosaic, he left the university and became one of the founders of Netscape Communications. Since Netscape he has worked for various startups (some successful and some not!). He currently spends his time as a dad, angel investor, and consultant for early stage companies. He also admits to spending a fair amount of time daydreaming about the Tesla Roadster, which he already has on order…

Jon Faiz Kayyem, PhD, is a Managing Partner of Efficacy Capital, which manages a biotech public equities fund. He previously founded Clinical Micro Sensors, now an operating subsidiary of U.K.-based Osmetech. The firm uses advanced electronics and biochemistry to create electronic detectors of specific DNA sequences. Since 1997, Dr. Kayyem has been awarded 31 U.S. patents in nucleic acid detection technology. He serves on the board of several privately-held startup businesses and has produced two documentary films. Dr. Kayyem reserved one of the first 100 Tesla Roadsters and in this week's blog explains why he will never buy another gasoline-powered vehicle.

"The perfect is the enemy of the good." Voltaire said something like that, and I think about it often when making "think" versus "act" decisions. For example, should I buy a 60-inch plasma screen or wait and see what comes next?

But how about the bigger question that has bugged me for a while: Should I switch to alternatively-fueled vehicles or wait and see what comes next? I was definitely in waiting mode until one day in 2004 when I saw Al Gore give his Inconvenient Truth slide show. I left the presentation vowing not to buy another gasoline-powered car, a vow that now has me owning a biodiesel Volkswagen and on the list to receive one of the first 100 Tesla Roadsters.