Michigan-born Tesla employee pretty much embodies industry shift to electric vehicles

The allure of working on the fastest production electric vehicles sure beats trying to build a hydrogen-powered lawnmower. That's the lesson we can learn from 23-year-old Tony Helmholdt, a young Michigander who recently moved out to Chicago to help maintain Roadsters for Tesla in the Windy City.

Helmholdt was profiled by Grand Rapids Press and it turns out he's pretty much the story of the auto industry, circa 2010 in a single person. A young kid from the Midwest likes to build things and starts converting motorcycles to battery power. He finds alternative power more appealing than traditional gasoline engines and the powers that be (in this case, his father) suggest he look into hydrogen (for the aforementioned lawnmower). The student, though, "found electricity to be more feasible," as he told the Press:

[Electric vehicles require] as much maintenance as an electric drill. It's a motor and two axles -- no motor oil, no spark plugs, no transmission fluid. It really is very simple.

The enthusiasm was there, but the job, it turns out, are out of state. How much more fitting can this story be?

[Source: Grand Rapids Press]