That future probably won’t include unionization if Silicon Valley startups and the new vanguard of green companies in California are any indication.

288 HP, 0-60 in 3.9 seconds, all electric Tesla Roadster

Tesla has delivered approximately 1,000 trophy wife vehicles — the Tesla Roadster (base price $101,500) — to such early early adopters as Jay Leno, Leonardo Dicaprio, and Matt Damon — not to mention a number of VCs and Silicon Valley CEOs. The company has also delivered performance with 248 horses for its launch vehicle, the Roadster, and 288 horses for its new Roadster Sport.

But that doesn’t do a whole lot for reaching a more mainstream audience. And investors in the valley don’t like things that don’t scale or go viral.

That’s where the Model S comes in: a $50,000-ish all electric sedan. Tesla just announced its purchase of the just-shuttered Nummi automobile plant in Fremont, California. The factory has the capacity to produce 500,000 vehicles per year. While Tesla has received a $50M investment from Toyota to help co-develop electric cars and systems — it has received $465M in loans from the U.S. government to build out the factory — making Toyota’s investment a drop in the bucket and not enough for Tesla to mention Toyota in its Nummi press release (a separate press release was issued for the Toyota investment). Tesla also announced in January that it would file for a $100M IPO.

While it’s no surprise that Toyota would want to invest in Tesla since they’re lagging behind GM and Nissan in the development of an all-electric vehicle — not to mention the company needs to repair its image following its cars’ recent sudden acceleration issues and quality problems.

So what does all of this mean to operations? Tesla CEO Elon Musk will be expected to run his company like any other valley startup: flexible organizations, adaptable product execution, direct communications across the company (non-corporate), close ties to academic innovation (ties to Berkeley, Stanford, and others), maximizing product cycles, agile engineering, and at-will hiring — that’s right, don’t expect unionization any time soon.

And the companies investors, many are big valley names, will expect the same: Al Wahada Capital Investment owns 22M shares (11%), a partnership between Daimler and the government of Abu Dhabi owns the same amount, VantagePoint Venture Partners owns 21 million shares (10%), Valor Equity Partners owns 15M shares (7%), Draper Fisher Jurvetson owns roughly 8M shares (4%) and Technology Partners owns 8M shares (4%).

BAIC's new electric car – the C71EV – based on Saab's 9-5

Chinese carmaker Beijing Automotive Industries Company (BAIC) purchased the tooling for the Saab 9-3 and 9-5 lines and is offering its sleeker versions of the car dubbed the C60 and C71 featuring a new nose and tail lights.  It even has an electric model, the C71EV that BAIC claims will run 90 miles on a charge. BAIC, which has a history of making garbage trucks (literally), now can boast a car that’s viable in the global marketplace.

Local Motors Rally Fighter

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Local Motors, a DIY auto manufacturing outfit based in Wareham, Mass., has developed the Rally Fighter based on user-submitted design and some top-flight hardware. Slated to be released in June 2010, the car boasts a BMW 3.0 liter turbo clean diesel motor with 265 horsepower and 425 pounds of torque. The steel tube frame is strong and lightweight. The result? Desert racer meets bat mobile.

The concept behind Local Motors is simple: ugen social design, lightweight and efficient body materials and engines, and sustainable manufacturing. The community designs the car and the manufacturing and customization is done locally. Local Motors even invites buyers to work next to its builders in a regional micro factory.

And there’s a whole slew of new designs coming including the Boston Bullet, the Desmosedici RR2, the Green Apple, the Miami Roadster, the San Francisco Ethylik (see below) and many more. What will one of these wonder cars cost you? Around $50,000… but like most things in the public arena, those costs should come down over time.

San Francisco Ethylik from Local Motors

Well not only does Toyota have a nasty, more self-righteous, all-electric vehicle coming in around the same price as the Prius in the form of the Nissan Leaf. Nipping on its heals is the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, an all-electric vehicle expected to come in below $30,000.

Mitsubishi i-MiEV Price Performance

i MiEV is an all-electric, zero emissions vehicle that is currently being testing in Japanese power company fleets. Once it’s been road tested, Mitsubishi will commercialize the vehicle. The car uses high performance, high capacity lithium-ion batteries manufactured by GS Yuasa Corp. in Japan. The target range for the car is 160km or approximately 100 miles and a top speed of 130 km/h or approx 62 mph. It can be plugged into a standard wall outlet or hooked up to a quick charger.

The car will launch in the U.S. in 2011.

Even better, you can print a paper craft cutout of the car.

The new engines are slated to be used in Mercedes-Benz hybrid vehicles from 2012 on and will be built in the company’s Berlin manufacturing plant.

The electric engine interacts with the combustion engine and lowers fuel consumption by recovering energy during breaking for instance. Expect to find transmission-integrated electric engines in Mercedes’ new BlueZERO E-CELL Plus cars.

French technology and car manufacturer MDI, is bringing its smart and simple, zero pollution car to the U.S.

If you thought the Citroen had a unique style, this car is offering some sort of trippy tribute to that car maker. Check out the AirPod (I’m sure Apple won’t litigate…).

The AirPod - It's French!

It’s like Jacques Cousteau wanted to resuscitate his Pacer.

And then there’s the MiniFlowAir (I’m sure Mini won’t litigate…).

The MiniFlowAir - It's French!

So next year, the year of the Chevy Volt, the year of the Nissan Leaf, will also be the year of the MDI air-compressed cars in the U.S. market. We’re looking at a 75 horsepower car, that goes 35mph (up to 90 mph with some gas involved), with a range of 1,000 miles at about a buck and a half to fill up, and has an initial investment of less than $20,000. That all adds up to interesting.

The first car the company will roll out in the U.S. will probably be the 4-door, 6-passenger CityFlowAir.

CityFlowAir

Not bad. While the CityFlowAir (or whatever better name they end up calling it) will probably start as a neighborhood compressed-air car (I might as well add the acronym NCAC), it has the capability of going much further. Sure, it’s no performance vehicle, but it’s got that one added bonus of saving the planet. i9z75k46nu

e-Zone Cop Car in China

Go China!

The car fits the niche of what’s coined the neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV) or city drive electric vehicles (CDEV). I personally prefer STGCEV (storm trooper golf car electric vehicles).

e-Zone NEV

The vehicle has quick-charge technology that lets it power up in 10 minutes (according to the company) from a standard 110-volt outlet and can go 70 miles on a single charge. It also includes a McPherson suspension system and 4-wheel drive with 4 direct-drive, in-wheel motors. The e-Zone includes regenerative braking using electromagnetic technology.

Potential U.S. plants to manufacture the e-Zone and its sister car the c-Zone (this is where the golf cart comes in) include Alabama, California, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The company plans to employ about 2,600 workers and managers over the next five years with the hope of employing more than 10,000 workers by 2014 — with a major presence on the West Coast and the Southeast.

Lee Young Ki, president of CT&T, in an interview with Maeil Economy said the company plans to build “40 EV plants with the capacity of 5,000-10,000 units per year in the United States, including 10 plants in the state of California… 4 plants in Atlanta, Hawaii, and other locations.”

If CT&T does open up plants across the U.S., it should be careful about press releases with language like the “e-Zone is good for women and the elderly”… y’know, to bring home all the ingredients to mix their husband’s perfect hi-ball. Ugh. At least its environmental heart is in the right spot.

e-Zone

The e-Zone is expected to cost from about $8,000 to $17,500, which might be a hard sell in the U.S. when scooters can be bought for a fraction of that cost. Then again, CT&T also makes scooters.

Open the blast doors!

Vinod Khosla, one of the original founders of Sun Microsystems, is investing heavily in alternative energy. One of his recent investments is Transonic Combustion.  He wants to make the internal combustion engine 50% more efficient.

While Ford, GM and Daimler have been working on incremental improvements in the combustion engine, Khosla believes that only a startup can take the leaps necessary for radical change.

In May, Transonic received its C round of funding to improve upon its TSCi™ fuel injection system and get its technology to market.

EPA Cycle Testing of Transonic's Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (left) and TSCiTM R&D Prototype Injectors (right)

According to the company, “Transonic Combustion is on course to directly supply global automotive manufacturers with its high efficiency fuel injection systems. Transonic’s TSCi fuel injection system has demonstrated extraordinary fuel economy and lower emissions, while also running gasoline effectively within diesel architectures. To date, testing on several different engine platforms with multiple customers and multiple fuels has regularly achieved air-to-fuel ratios in excess of 80:1 at cruise conditions, with engine-out NOx at just 50% of comparable standard engines. These promising results have led to significant engagement with leading global automotive and engine makers.”

Fifty percent reduction in nitrous oxide exhaust. Fifty percent increase in efficiency.

Those are some nice numbers — and big promises.

Today’s engines transform about 15% of fuel into energy. Transonic promises 30%. What’s more, the company claims that major auto manufacturers don’t need to replace current engines wholesale but can adapt current designs to include the technology. The company also claims to have three of the top global car companies ready to use the technology.

Transonic expects it’s fuel injectors to be included in millions of engines over the next few years. Keep an eye out for this Khosla venture.

Classic Mercedes Gullwing

In July, Mercedes announced that it’s developing the SLS AMG Gullwing eDrive — and it promises a car that can do 0-60 mph in about four seconds. The all-wheel drive car has four electric motors (one per wheel, unlike the Tesla which has one for the rear axle only) and two transmissions. Mercedes says the car will have 525 horsepower and 649 lb/ft of torque.

The eDrive is powered by a liquid-cooled 400-volt lithium-ion battery of modular design with an energy content of 48 kWh and a capacity of 40 Ah.

According to Mercedes, the eDrive version of the SLS AMG Gullwing puts it on an even footing with the SLS AMG with a 6.3-litre V8 engine developing 420 kW/571 hp.

Pricing for the 2011 Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing (non-electric version) is slated to go for about $250,000. For a high-end vehicle like this, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the eDrive version go for $50,000 more.

Car and Driver has some early photos of the new car. Call me crazy but it seems to be styled out like an American car.

Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing

With an eDrive, the SLS AMG will be green and mean — but no word yet on how far a charge will take you.