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2011 Tesla Roadster 2.5: New looks, wheels, seats, less noise
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- rjett 16y agoIf nothing else, they've demonstrated they can do cool and sexy quite well.
- Robin_Message 16y agoIt looks a lot like a Lotus Elise to me -- which is no bad thing! Also, I wondered if this was deliberate, or whether the problem is lightweight sportscar design is heavily constrained? (Of course, taste is constrained too.)
- dtegart 16y agoIt is a Lotus Elise with different fascias and interior. And powertrain of course. Tesla isn't really a car company, they are a powertrain company and in my opinion they should stay that way. It is where their strengths are, building cars is hard and expensive, and lots of other companies do it well. What the current car companies don't do is electric powertrains and all the controls that go with that.
- rythie 16y agoIt is based on the same chassis as the Elise and is assembled by them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Roadster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Roadster
- angstrom 16y agoIf they ever do an all electric NASCAR that will be one quiet race with the exception of the air wrenches changing tires and automated battery replacement swapping.
- JacobAldridge 16y agoMight be like digital cameras and the added shutter noise - speakers outside each car broadcasting pre-recorded engine noises based on a factor of electrical output and fuel load, plus some random number so the looped track doesn't sound like a looped track.
- nuclear_eclipse 16y agoAround Top Gear's test track, they were able to get IIRC about 30 minutes of full speed usage before he battery was completely drained, at which point it was a 6 hour recharge to top up the batteries again. Definitely not practical for any sort of extended racing series like NASCAR, etc.
- klous 16y agoBack of the napkin calc: NASCAR cars get 5 mpg, hold 22 gallon tanks --> 110 miles max range. Average speed of 170 mph --> a maximum of 39 minutes of racing. If they currently pit every 35-39 minutes or so, it wouldn't be completely impractical to pit every 30 minutes or so: have pit crews do a quick swap of the electric batteries at the same time as a the tire change.
- nuclear_eclipse 16y ago> have pit crews do a quick swap of the electric batteries I think that's the impractical part...
- samratjp 16y agoI wish they'd unveil more details about the Model S sedan. I thought it was supposed to come out 2011, but this explains everything why it's pushed off.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- jm3 16y agoIt'll be interesting to see if they can beat what the Smart Roadster [1] delivered. My gut intuition is that Tesla hasn't the chops. [1] http://www.google.com/search?q=smart+roadster http://www.google.com/search?q=smart+roadster
- stretchwithme 16y agouh oh, you expressed a negative opinion. you know they can't handle that.
- ryanwaggoner 16y agoWhat? That's not an electric car...how is this related? Why not compare it to all sports cars ever built, which would definitely turn up some better cars than either the Tesla Roadster or the Smart Roadster?
- jrockway 16y agoLet's face it, this is not just another car company. They are selling a high-end luxury car -- but oh yeah, it's electric. It's almost hard to believe. I hope their stock continues to do well.
- devonrt 16y agoQuieter, eh? I had a chance to drive the original a while back and it was already pretty damn quiet.
- chr15 16y agoThis vehicle is priced at $101,500 after federal tax credit, according to Tesla's website. I don't think the article mentions it.
- coin 16y agoThe high price makes the car less impressive and impractical. Create an affordable electric car and then I'm be impressed.
- illumin8 16y agoIt seems wrong to subsidize a $100K sports car with a tax credit.
- natrius 16y agoIt'd be more efficient to tax bad things like carbon emissions than to subsidize good things like electric cars. If you've been paying attention to our political discourse lately, you already know how low the chances are of an effective version of that policy getting implemented.
- adamilardi 16y agoThey look hot. I would love to see a mass market version. Even a 50k model could potentially see wide adoption.