Electric car's acceleration leaves owner charged up

With sleek but sharply curving lines, the Tesla sports car looks a bit like a pint-size Batmobile.

But Farzad Nazem, a retired Yahoo executive who drives one, is more "battery man" than Batman. The car is electric and fuels up with a three-pronged plug that inserts into a typical wall outlet.

Nazem bought the Tesla in 2006 at a charity auction in Atherton. The car, the latest prestige toy for Silicon Valley executives because of its ability to soar from zero to 60 mph in four seconds (and a steep sticker price, now $109,000) had just been introduced to the market, and orders were being taken. Nazem made the winning bid, $150,000, for car No. 66 in the line's "signature series" - a designation for the first 100 Teslas made.