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L.A.-based writer Matthew DeBord described the all-electric Tesla Roadster Sport he spent two days test driving as “$130,000 of Electric Orange Sex.” My only quibble with that is that the one I rode in is white. I want one.
Forget every stereotype in your head about electric cars as glorified golf carts. The Tesla is an honest-to-goodness high performance sports car. According to the Tesla Web site, the Roadster Sport can go from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds. It’s not hype. You’ll be pinned to your seat while doing it.
Get behind the wheel and you’ll be driving one of the fastest cars on the road. I’d have a zillion speeding tickets within a month if I owned one.
Some observations after a visit to the Tesla Motors “gallery” in Boulder and a white knuckles ride on a steep, winding road through Boulder’s Sunshine Valley.
Observation #1: Tesla is a serious car, built and sold by a serious company.
Tesla is well financed by people who know how to start a successful business. They have the capital and the business savvy to succeed. The company’s roots are in Silicon Valley. PayPal founder Elon Musk is one of the three founders and serves as the company’s CEO. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are investors. And Tesla filed an S-1 statement with the SEC in January, a step toward taking the company public through an IPO. The company announced in July 2009 that it was making a profit.
Observation #2: The Tesla Roadster Sport is a kick-ass car.
I’ve already covered the 0-to-60-really-fast thing. The car’s also a design masterpiece, inside and out. And it’s not just electric, it’s electronic -- with remote diagnostics and a digital touch screen control console that will appeal to people who like electronic toys. You can have fun with this car even when you’re not stomping on the accelerator. Make no mistake, though. The main attraction is making this baby move.
Observation #3: These guys are smart marketers.
Tesla’s creators started from the premise that no one was buying electric cars because no one was building electric cars people want to buy. They got it exactly right. They’ve built a car people want to buy. The Tesla Motors Web site looks very much like the Web site of any other car company. They’re selling performance and sex appeal, not green-ery.
I’m not a sports car enthusiast. I’d buy this car if I could. Hey, maybe I’ll win the lottery
Without an internal combustion engine, exhaust system or a clutch and the traditional kind of transmission required to switch gears as you change speeds, most of the things that require regular trips to the mechanic are gone. The electric motor in the Tesla has one moving part – the rotor. There are four gears – drive, reverse, neutral, park. Older versions had a gear stick. The newer ones use buttons.
Even brake pads last longer because you won’t use your brakes as often to slow down. You just ease up on the accelerator. Take your foot off the accelerator and the car will slow down and eventually come to a stop, even on a moderate downhill slope. Taking your foot completely off the accelerator feels very much like shifting down to a very low gear. Except there are no gear changes involved. More RPMs, more speed. Fewer RPMs, less speed. Period.
Tesla suggests routine maintenance once a year or every 12,000 miles. Most of the maintenance involves software upgrades and electrical work. You don’t have to take your car into the garage. The technician comes to you.
You won’t be stopping at gas stations, of course. There’s no gas tank. Instead, you have to charge the batteries. A full charge costs about five bucks at current prices for electricity, Tesla says.
You have three options for charging your car:
- A standard 120-volt charger that plugs into any standard electric outlet. It takes 48 hours or 37 hours, depending on whether you pull 12 amps or 15 amps while charging the car. Ouch. You don’t want to wait until you’re on empty to use this thing. But works fine for topping off the charge when the car will be sitting for a while anyway. Comes standard. with the car.
- A 240-volt mobile charger that plugs into a 240-volt outlet and will do a full charge in about 8 hours at 30 amps. You still don’t want to let your charge get to empty before you plug in your car. But you can use it at home or on the road if you can find a 240-volt outlet to plug into. This option will cost you about $1,500, plus the cost of having an electrician install a 240-volt outlet in your garage.
- A High Power Connector. Hard-wired into a single location, will do a full charge in four hours. This option costs $1,950 plus installation. If you can afford $100K+ for a car, you can afford this, too.
Observation #5: This car is really quiet.
It was spooky watching employees moving cars around in the Boulder “gallery.” The cars were completely silent. On the road, you can hear the low whir of the rotor -- if you listen for it. Mostly what you’ll hear is the wind whizzing past you as you zoom down the road. If you need the loud VROOM, VROOM of the muscle cars of yesteryear, this isn’t your car.
Impressive as it is, the Roadster Sport is the warm-up act for Tesla. The “game changer” as they see it will be the Model S, due out late next year.
The Model S will be a full-sized sedan / SUV style vehicle that will sell for about half as much as the Roadster Sport, get up to 300 miles on a full charge and carry up to seven passengers -- or a surfboard, fully assembled mountain bike and 42-inch plasma TV.
Tesla expects the Model S to appeal to families now buying high-end SUVs or similar vehicles. With a $60,000 price tag, they believe the Model S can compete with a standard vehicle selling for about $30,000 once the lower operating and maintenance costs of an all-electric vehicle are factored in. I think they’re right. I hope they’re right. I’d love to own an all-electric car that’s a real car. Realistically, I’ll never own a Roadster Sport. I might someday own a Model S. I suspect a lot of people fit that profile.
Observation #7: This is the future!?
The ambiguity of the punctuation at the end of the heading for this section is intentional. I believe -- and hope -- Tesla has opened the door to the cars of the future.
The one real question mark is batteries. Can batteries be made dense enough so electric cars will have a range that competes with the range of a full tank of gas with recharge times somewhat comparable to filling up your tank? If the answer is yes, Tesla is showing us the future. If the answer is no, Tesla is showing us what will turn out to be an interesting footnote in automotive history.
I believe it’ll happen. The pessimists say it’ll take a couple decades or more. My data-free prediction is five years or less. I expect to own an all-electric car someday. And I’m an old guy. I don’t have 20 years to wait for that to happen.
I don't even like old cars. I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake.
Posted by: art paintings | 07/22/2010 at 08:28 PM