Revised Tesla Roadster v1.5 Is Released, Still Doesn’t Mean Your Pathetic Ass Can Afford One

 

Well technically, the car itself didn’t receive the upgrade, but rather the automatic gearbox. Highly anticipated by the handful of people who can afford one [whom mostly work in the tech department], the Powertrain 1.5 delivers 30% more torque and 10% more range to the Tesla Roadster’s Borg-Warner transmission. Helping you make that Dungeons and Dragons tournament on time, the power boost kicks the Tesla Roadster’s acceleration rate into warp speed,  zooming from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.0 seconds. The greenest, most impressive part? The all-electric Tesla Roadster still averages 244 miles off a single charge.

Since production began last March, 27 Roadsters have been delivered to buyers, all presumably with the Roadster’s original Powertrain 1.0 transmission. Tesla will upgrade those owners to the Powertrain 1.5 for free, and now that initial kinks in the transmission dynamics have been ironed out, expects production output/consumer demand to more than double. “Now that we have a final powertrain design, in a matter of months there will be hundreds of Tesla Roadsters across the country,” CEO Ze’ev Drori told Autopia, “We’re heralding nothing less than a new era of the automobile.”

[News Source: Autopia, Wired Blog]

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Tesla Issues Response To Top Gear Review [Top Gear]

Top Gear’s Tesla Roadster review we posted Monday angered a few people at the Silicon Valley startup. Spokeswoman Rachel Konrad spoke with Wired Magazine about Clarkson’s unabashed words. Here's what she had to say.

All was well in Top Gear land for the review of the Tesla Roadster. Clarkson’s usual suspicious attitude was quickly wiped clean when he raced a standard Lotus Elise, as the little electric-that-could tore past the Elise in the straights, but like the stereotype of many American cars, took a crap in the corners. Then it lost battery power after 55 miles (of heavy track use) and would require 16 hours to recharge. A second Tesla Roadster was brought out and broke soon after with Clarkson stating the motor was overheating. Clarkson went back to the first car only to find that the brakes were busted. Things weren’t looking good for the Silicon Valley startup.

Tesla spokesperson, Rachel Konrad (as an aside we know quite a number of young lads who fancied Konrad during her time spent in Detroit) was more than a little peeved upon hearing the bad review and decided she needed to step in. Konrad states the lithium-ion batteries never lost their charge, and more specifically, neither car’s charge level dropped below 20 percent.

Konrad says,

“They never had to push a car off the track because of lack of charge or a fault and it isn’t clear why the segment included footage showing exactly that.”

Curious as to why Clarkson states that the Tesla needs 16 hours to charge, she says,

“The vast majority of people who have a Tesla in their garage have much faster systems that recharge from dead to full in as little as 3.5 hours (using the Tesla Motors High Power Connector).”

The issue with the engine overheating wasn’t addressed, but Konrad says that the brake failure in the first car was an issue with a blown fuse.

“The Roadster was back up and running literally within minutes,” she said.

Although Clarkson was his usual self, complaining about anything and everything, he did appear to enjoy the car, even calling himself a “volt head” during the first part of the segment. Clarkson’s voice carries weight the world over, but considering the little Tesla Roadster's current market — Silicon Valley execs with money burning a hole in their pocket and eco-freaks; Does it matter?

[via Wired]

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Tesla's WhiteStar will be called the Model S - more info soon

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Tesla Motors

Ok, ok, we previewed most of what we knew/know about Tesla's announcement regarding the future plans of the WhiteStar sedan this morning. Our friend Damon is at the ceremony and will be providing us with as many details as he can in very short order. For now, thanks to Engadget, we see that the WhiteStar concept will be called the Model S when it goes into production. Yes, it'll be built in CA and the numbers are awesome at this point: $60,000 for zero tailpipe emissions and 225 miles on a full charge. More soon.

[Source: Engadget]

 

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