What kind of electric car you can get for $100,000

Just don't plan to drive very far in this car. At a price starts at $109,000 in the United States for the base model, you would hope that you could actually drive one way from LA to Las Vegas. In any case, don't let the battery run down or you will be stuck for a long time. It isn't like you can stop for lunch for an hour and hope to recharge it very much during that time.

A FEW blocks from the Tesla Motors dealership here is one of California’s public charging stations for electric vehicles. But the Tesla Roadster, just the sort of vehicle that planners had in mind when the statewide network was conceived, cannot be charged there.

“It’s an inductive charging system,” Jeremy Snyder, general manager of the Tesla showroom, said of the facility. Translation: the inductive connector is not compatible with the Roadster, whose conductive system uses a plug with metal contacts to carry the electricity that recharges the battery. . . .

Using the standard charging connector (15 amp capacity) plugged into a typical 120-volt outlet, the Roadster needs an hour of recharging for every five miles of driving. . . .

If you drive far enough to deplete the Roadster’s battery pack, it can take up to 36 hours to recharge it using 120-volt household current, at a cost of about $5, according to Tesla. Refueling is quicker when a high-voltage circuit, typically used for appliances like electric clothes dryers, is available. . . .

Tesla sells a 40-amp universal mobile connector (about six hours for a recharge) for $1,500. . . .