A&Q about Lotus
Q:
Did anyone attend the introduction of the Tesla Roadster. Lotus designs and builds this electric car for Tesla which is based on the Elise. The Tesla was introduced in CA last week. Specs
248 hp
130 mph
0-60 4 secs
250 mile range
price $100,000
web site www.teslamotors.com
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time do do a searchy! They were at Palo Alto High School on Saturday. Seem like a great bunch of folks...real passion from real people:
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Originally Posted by rbullett
Did anyone attend the introduction of the Tesla Roadster. Lotus designs and builds this electric car for Tesla which is based on the Elise. The Tesla was introduced in CA last week. Specs
248 hp
130 mph
0-60 4 secs
250 mile range
price $100,000
web site www.teslamotors.com
I was there, along with Knucklehead and IBCJ. Good times.
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Holy cow, we've really entered the re-post twilight zone with this topic.
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Hey, Steve (transio), have you heard about the new electric Elise?
Just kidding. Just kidding.
Seriously though...
A lot of people here are very excited about it (including me) and have been talking about it in several other threads for a while.
I have here an August 9 issue of the San Francisco newspaper with the car on the front page as the lead story.
I had the fortune to snap a lot of pictures of it at the Palo Alto car show last month. I also picked up some nice brochures there which I could scan in and post here, but you might be better off just visiting the Tesla website.
Someone in an earlier thread (IBCJ?) posted a pic of Governor Schwarzenegger driving one.
The FAQ and the blog on the Tesla website go into detail about their relationship with Lotus. Also, this has been gone over in some detail in a bunch of previous threads here on ET.
It weighs a fair amount more than the Elise (400 lbs), has a little more horsepower, uses a lot less gas , has an almost identical interior, has a slightly different exterior, has an electric plug instead of a gas cap.
For more info, check out the other 8 threads on this topic.
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saw it at the palo alto british car meet about a month ago, fun to check out
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Ok, ok, I missed the post!!. Thanks for the input.
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Originally Posted by KingOfJericho
ROFL
Fell out of my chair when I saw that pic!
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He's not dead yet !
hey if they really do get the price down to 80k as they claim, it is not that far off from a well equipped exige-s. I am waiting to read what the handling is like though......
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Did Tesla do anything to add bumpers, or will they have to make changes for '07 once the waivers run out?
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Originally Posted by ivan1
I am waiting to read what the handling is like though......
Me too.
I also want to see what the battery recharge life is like after 15,000 miles
and how safe, stable, and not flammable the battery pack turns out to be.
The real landmark will be when they can compare something like this against comparably priced sports cars and not even have to try to get some "extra credit" because it's electric.
I.e., when something like this is just considered "A high performance car. Period."
A:
Originally Posted by Spudboy
Did Tesla do anything to add bumpers, or will they have to make changes for '07 once the waivers run out?
The car is fully US compliant. They actually have "normal" bumpers.
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Originally Posted by Gizmo
Me too.
I also want to see what the battery recharge life is like after 15,000 miles
and how safe, stable, and not flammable the battery pack turns out to be.
The real landmark will be when they can compare something like this against comparably priced sports cars and not even have to try to get some "extra credit" because it's electric.
I.e., when something like this is just considered "A high performance car. Period."
It won't happen with a battery powered car. The recharge time will never be comparable to a fill-up at a gas station. Fuel cell electric...maybe.
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Interesting article in U.S. News about "plug in" hybrids.....
Like the Toyota Prius, the new hybrids would draw power from either the electric battery or the gasoline engine. But they would have bigger, more powerful batteries-and a cord that would plug into a normal 120-volt household outlet. They would be able to travel long distances, perhaps 20 to 40 miles, using little or no gasoline. Since the vast majority of Americans drive fewer than 40 miles per day, the PHEV could render the daily commute gas free. And the driver would never be stranded without a charge. PHEVs are "the most immediate and practical alternative to petroleum and represent a bridge technology to a sustainable transportation future," says Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, a coalition of environmental and business groups.
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Plug in hybrids are definitely a step in the right direction, but won't necessarily be cost feasible to retrofit at the moment. Once these plugin hybrids are available from the factory, then momentum will pick up.
I'd like to share another link with you (which I posted in an earlier Tesla thread!). The Tesla Motors blog has some really good reading material, if you're interested in seeing where the company wants to go, and the pros of electric vs plugin hybrid and gas (among other topics!). A society 100% addicted to hybrids is still 100% addicted to gas.
RSS feed -
Electric cars will be the same. Once the driving range is enough to make it through the day, we will only ever charge while we sleep. The Tesla Roadster is like that already for most of us, except when we want to take a long road trip. With a 500 mile range, even road trips are covered.
And that means charging stations, like gas stations, are soon to be as obsolete as cigarette lighter chargers for our phones. We will need a charger in our garages, at hotels, and at campgrounds. And that’s it. Nice side business for Hyatt Hotels and KOA, by the way…
Originally Posted by ChrisB
It won't happen with a battery powered car. The recharge time will never be comparable to a fill-up at a gas station. Fuel cell electric...maybe.
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I'd have to say, that even for propoganda, Tesla's blog is very compelling and well reasoned reading. Martin's a pretty firey individual and it shows (that's a good thing)
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I would imagine the handling of the Tesla sucks compared to the Elise. With the extra weight of the battery pack (+900) offset by the carbon fiber clam (-200), the thing weighs "around 2500lbs" according to Tesla. That means 2600.
Unless you get your electricity from a hydroelectric dam, all you're doing is shifting the emissions from the tailpipe to a coal burning electric plant. Whatever makes you feel good. Still, this is the first "look at me, I'm saving the planet" car I'd ever take for a test drive.
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Originally Posted by Taxcheat
I would imagine the handling of the Tesla sucks compared to the Elise. With the extra weight of the battery pack (+900) offset by the carbon fiber clam (-200), the thing weighs "around 2500lbs" according to Tesla. That means 2600.
Unless you get your electricity from a hydroelectric dam, all you're doing is shifting the emissions from the tailpipe to a coal burning electric plant. Whatever makes you feel good. Still, this is the first "look at me, I'm saving the planet" car I'd ever take for a test drive.
From an impartial review, the Tesla performs and handles quite like the Elise. There's an interesting preview-drive article on the Tesla in the on-line magazine Winding Road .
Winding Road is a free subscription and has excellent writing and photography. The Tesla article is the most informative piece I've seen on the car to date.
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They recently took the car to the Hethel test track (the only tracking the car's seen), but I wasn't able to ask if Gavin had a go in it, and what the driving impressions were.