Tesla Roadster - The Electric car that can reach a top speed of 130 mph

Is this the future?
At last moving away from oil for cars, while still having a decent motor?

The Tesla Roadster is the first fully electric automobile to be produced by electric car firm Tesla Motors. Tesla claims prototypes have been able to accelerate from 0-60 mph (100 km/h) in about 4 seconds, and reach a top speed of 130 mph (210 km/h). Additionally, the car will be able to travel 250 miles (400 km) on a single charge of its lithium ion batteries. While the Roadster does not actually use gasoline, an equivalent fuel efficiency of 135 mpg (57 km/l, or 1.75 l/100 km) is reported

The car was officially unveiled on July 19, 2006 in Santa Monica, California. Its "Signature One Hundred" first set of fully equipped cars sold out by late August, and the second hundred sold out by October. Each of the first 200, fully loaded with all options, cost US$100,000; delivery is scheduled for 2007.

en.wikipedia.org...

The down side is they are expensive.

Tesla’s Roadster will be available in 2007. The cost? Between $80,000 and $100,000. Hey, saving the planet and having a blast doing it doesn’t come cheap. Perhaps Tesla’s success will spawn a new generation of less expensive EVs.

www.popularmechanics.com...

[edit on 18-12-2006 by Denied]

They only plan to produce 100,000 units for their 2007 models. They will easily sell them all I think and that will give them even more of a reason to make different and cheaper models available to the general market.

I want to see a real electric dragster. A truly well built electric dragster will leave any combustion engine dragster in the dust. The problem is there is no driveshaft available that can handle the instantaneous and high amount of torque.

Pure electric engines are far superior to the traditional gas-powered engines, but they're going to require some new thinking before someone is able to take full advantage of them.

[edit on 12/18/2006 by supercheetah]

[edit on 12/18/2006 by supercheetah]

The Eliica is the closest thing to what u describe.

en.wikipedia.org...

Here's a clip from the BBC..... taking a quick spin in the Tesla.


news.bbc.co.uk...

Oh btw, here are a couple of other threads on the same topic with more information in them. Don't want to rehash everything I've posted about this vehicle.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Cheers for that Sardion. I just spent the best part of ten minutes trying to find the older TESLA threads but couldn't find 'em.

I saw this at the L.A. auto show over at the Yokohama booth, they put a drop on the suspension which left the driver's seat about seven inches off the ground.

Tesla says they are going to use this model to create an image for their company and to raise capital to produce a more price friendly vehicle for the general public.

Although having a vehicle similar to this in your garage could free you from petroleum, it still does not eliminate your carbon footprint if your part of the grid is powered by coal/gas power stations. Aside from that I feel that it's a step in the right direction.

Cool !

Electric cars though are notoriously bad in cold weather and on hilly terrain. Have these issues been addressed ?

The Hills problem has been more than taken care of, as for the cold weather, I'm not sure.

that's a pretty good looking car, but it's too high priced..
i wonder if and how their cheaper models would look like, maybe they could start making it look all futuristic like the cars in that movie "I-Robot" haha