Tesla Debuts Its Long Anticipated Electric Roadster
Jeremy Snyder gets a big kick out of the two-seat Tesla Roadster, and not because of its all-electric engine. Snyder, head of Tesla’s client services, drove one of the shiny new cars down a side street Thursday and accelerated, as the car’s lithium-ion battery-powered engine emitted a powerful purr sounding something like a much quieter jet engine.
"Accelerate pretty good?" Snyder asked rhetorically.
"I call it a turbine sound," he told the Associated Press.
"Because it’s an electric motor it’s got 100 percent torque all the time. So it just pulls you like when you’re taking off in an airplane."
Tesla was formed in 2003 and named for inventor Nikola Tesla, an early pioneer in the field of electricity.
The company’s Roadster will officially hit the market next week as Tesla opens the first of its stores in Westwood, California, near UCLA and at the intersection of Brentwood, Hollywood and Beverly Hills.
"Because it’s Hollywood and glamorous, this is the flagship store," Snyder told the Associated Press.
After years of development with over $40 million in venture capital from investors such as Google Inc. founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the car will have the sleek lines of a Ferrari or Porsche and a 6,831-cell lithium-ion battery pack that gives off no emissions. It will carry a $109,000 sticker price, but a fully loaded model could cost as much as $124,000, a price still inexpensive when compared with a high-end Ferrari.
“The people buying its cars so far, are celebrities, early adopters, wealthy people and environmentalists,” national sales manager Doreen Allen told the Associated Press.
Company officials say actors Kelsey Grammer and George Clooney, musicians Will.i.am and Flea, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have each ordered a Roadster.
However, Allen said delivery was running at about 15 months.
Tesla plans to open its next store in a couple of months in San Carlos, California, near the company’s Silicon Valley Headquarters where the car was developed. More stores are planned for New York, Chicago and other cities by early 2009.
Tesla began accepting orders last year for the estimated 600 Roadsters the company would produce in 2008. By October, it had sold all of them, according to Allen, who added that the company was surprised by the high demand.
The first Roadsters began rolling off the production line six weeks ago, and should begin moving out the door later this month, Allen said. All of the 2008 models should be delivered to their owners by March 2009. Meanwhile, orders are now being taken for 2009 models, of which the company plans to produce about 1,500.
With its carbon and fiber body, the Roadster will accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in just under four seconds, and tops out at 125 mph. One charge can power the vehicle 225 miles, with a full recharge requiring only three-and-a-half hours. Company officials say should most people would be able to drive the Roadster to work and back each day and recharge it at night, similar to a mobile phone.
However, a longer road trip, say from Los Angeles to San Francisco, would require stopping somewhere in between to plug the Roadster’s adapter cord into an electrical outlet.
Critics of the Roadster worry about the safety and durability of the 1,000-pound lithium-ion battery, which represents nearly 40 percent of the car’s entire weight of 2,700 pounds. However, Tesla officials have said the car has passed all of the required safety tests, and that the battery will last for approximately 100,000 miles.
Long term, Tesla has plans to produce lower-cost family vehicles.
"There’s a model in the works right now, a five-passenger sedan that will be styled comparable to the roadster but a lot roomier to accommodate families, and that is slated for 2010," said Tesla’s Snyder.
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