We may not yet live in the George Jetson age, with flying cars and other cartoonishly fun transport devices. But then there is the Tesla Roadster, if not a leap into the sci-fi future, certainly a detour down the road not taken—some of the earliest cars, after all, were battery powered. Ironically, the company’s namesake—Nikola Tesla—invented the alternator and electric starter motor that made internal combustion engines practical more than 100 years ago, hence delaying the development of electric cars.

Fast-forward to the day of our test-drive, which dawns crystalline—a blue sky backdrop makes the Marin Headlands’ stunning green-and-brown cliffs stand out against the rouge of the Golden Gate Bridge. Adding silver to that palette are the Tesla folks, who’ve trucked up from their Silicon Valley headquarters with an almost-ready-for-prime-time prototype of the world’s first production electric sports car.

Actually, this is a quasi-mass produced electric roadster, not just some mad scientist’s Saturday project that causes the neighborhood kids to furrow their brows. While it will take some time and a major price drop before these $100,000 cars are anything close to common, enough of the 600 models scheduled to be produced in 2008 will soon be circulating in California that it might give people the impression that a Jetsonian future could already be here.

In the Bay Area, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have plunked down deposits for the car, as has San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom. Down in Hollywood, the number of A-list celebrity customers is growing and currently includes George Clooney, Dustin Hoffman and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

As the object of such frenzy rolls out of its trailer, tourists taking in the expansive view of San Francisco stop and stare. It sure looks like a Lotus, at least from a few paces. But then again, step closer. It’s built on the Lotus Elise’s extruded aluminum chassis. While the Elise almost channels Picasso with its intersecting lines and swoops; the Tesla is less fussy and more purposeful. The sills are lower and its flanks simpler. Its wheelbase is longer (to compensate for the battery pack). The front headlight clusters evoke the same beady-eyed menace found in the Porsche Carrera GT. The Tesla Roadster is no Toyota Prius.

"Let me show you around the car," says Tesla product manager Aaron Platshon, as he proceeds to pop open doors and hoods. This will have to be endured, though the desire to get behind the wheel and romp with this petroleum-snubbing demon makes the gizmo tour a bit tough to take.

Beneath the carbon-fiber deck lid (for that matter, every panel is carbon fiber) and arrayed in a horizontal rectangle just forward of the rear wheels are the 6,831 lithium batteries that power the car. Each charge is good for around 220 miles. Recharging takes about three-and-a-half hours, says Platshon. And what of battery life, the bane of all electric technology, from cell phones to laptops? "We estimate that people should get around 500 charge cycles, or around 100,000 miles, before needing new batteries." No word yet on just what that maintenance issue will cost.Meanwhile, the front hood houses a set of fans integral to the liquid-hydrogen-based battery cooling system. And that’s pretty much it, other than a compact, single-speed transmission that actually does have a bit of a story with it.

Initially, the Tesla was advertised as featuring a two-speed transmission. Its first gear would deliver a much-ballyhooed zero-to-60-mph time of four seconds. Second gear would take the driver to about 130 mph, all with the pancake-flat torque curve that makes electric vehicles feel like impossible-to-catch sprinters compared to most gasoline-powered vehicles, which take time to spool up to speed.

But the two-speed, clutched approach proved problematic, slightly delaying production. So Tesla Motors decided to pursue a single speed transmission that will use a larger motor—producing north of 300 hp versus the original promise of 250 hp—that can indeed hit 60 mph in four seconds. "It’ll be a simpler, more reliable system that will still deliver the promised results," says Platshon, adding that this version of the Tesla will come down the production line later this year.

In the meantime, customers will receive exactly what is lurking before us today (with the upgrade provided later free of charge): a two-speed shifter that currently offers only one speed, whose 250 hp unit will only take the car to 60 mph in around 5.5 seconds. But it’ll do. Time to stop talking and drive.

Turning the key produces nothing, of course. Which is perhaps the biggest, if only, hurdle for most car fanatics’ brains to overcome, hardwired as they are to expect some sort of sound to follow ignition. Foot on the accelerator. Sacrilegious at it may sound to the good folks at Tesla, the next sound recalls the same metallic whine that comes when you stomp on a golf cart’s accelerator. Soon, however, that noise is replaced by the resonance of rubber ripping up the road. And, smaller engine aside, rip it does.

The Marin Headlands and its neighboring roads that snake to the top of nearby Mount Tamalpais are wonderfully sinuous, with barely a straightaway for miles. The Tesla devours these bends at a surging clip. Trying hard to upset the rear end (the car has a 65 percent rear weight bias) proves almost impossible, with the Tesla’s wide track and low center of gravity helping lay down virtual rails in all but the sharpest curves.

From the inside, the view is largely Elise: tachometer and speedometer dead ahead; leather-covered seats with minimal adjustment options; removable roof panel. Simple, elegant, and zero frills. This is decidedly a driver’s chariot, and not something—with its firm suspension and low sill height—you’d want to climb in and out of many times a day.From the outside, the car looks like a silver wedge bent on cleaving the air in two. But the combination of its blistering speed and comparative silence throws a number of hard-core bicyclists logging some miles here for a loop. As in, "Where the heck did that come from?"

But what might be even more impressive is the feeling you experience behind the wheel. Here you are, piloting a bona fide sports car and yet you’re not polluting any more than the two guys in spandex pedaling their carbon-fiber Specializeds. For car lovers with a soft spot for Mother Earth, this is called having your cake and devouring it, too.

"We’re eager to start delivering the cars," says Tesla marketing head Darryl Siry. "Only then can we say, ‘This car is for real folks. And we’re a real car company.’"

No worries there. In its final, four seconds-to-60-mph guise, there’s little question the Tesla Roadster has to be taken seriously as a true road machine, and not just some attempt to humor the carbon-neutral crowd. George Jetson, eat your heart out.  

Tesla Motors, www.teslamotors.com