If you haven’t heard of Tesla before, we forgive you, it isn’t exactly a household name. But they could be in the near future. Tesla have made numerous breakthroughs in the automotive industry, and some very important was at that. They have made a car that gives the likes of the Mercedes Benz SLK a run for its money, and here’s the twist… It is fully electric.
The Tesla Roadster is a conscious effort on behalf of Tesla’s founders to create an electric car that will actually get driving enthusiasts excited, one of the founders Martin Eberhard put it quite poignantly when he said “Most electric cars were designed by and for people who fundamentally don’t think we should drive,” and Tesla have set out to change that. But how successful have they been in doing so? At the moment it is quite hard to tell for as the Tesla Roadster is a great car it is incredibly expensive so isn’t going to be relevant to a lot of drivers in terms of what they can actually buy. But before getting in to that side of the argument, let us discuss how good the Tesla actually is. The 2011 Tesla Roadster could do 0-60mph in 3.7 seconds and it can hit speeds of 125 mph, that means the Tesla is faster to accelerate than a number of its rivals , for instance the Nissan 370Z which can only manage 0-60 in 4.6 seconds. Another side of performance which has let electric cars down in the past is the cars range which often sits around the 40 miles mark, which is pretty inconvenient. Tesla on the other hand claim that their Roadster can do an exceptional 245 which should have most journeys covered.
Another breakthrough comes in the form of a challenge that was accepted by the team at AutoExpress. Basically they drove to Birmingham and back (from London) in the electric Tesla S, in only 5 hours, which is pretty remarkable when you consider the same challenge took the electric Nissan Leaf over 15 hours to complete. The Tesla S has a quoted range of 312 miles, however, that range is based on the Tesla S travelling at consistently at 55mph. Obviously on a trip from London to Birmingham and back isn’t going to be as simple as that. Nevertheless, they arrived in Birmingham after 117 miles, and they still had 100 miles left over. You might think you have to make sacrifices to get that much out of the range, but they pulled no punches, the air-con was on full, they were using the cars sat-nav and the driver even had his phone charging through the USB. Obviously though they were 17 miles short in terms of range so they thought it best to charge up, and in just over half an hour of charging they had much more than necessary to complete the return leg (a 20 minute charge would recharge the battery to 50%, so 30 minutes was a bit excessive if anything).
This represents a huge leap for electric cars, that kind of range is incredibly appealing. Furthermore Tesla have big plans to introduce there supercharger stations all over the UK and ultimately Europe.
There is more good news in that Tesla have the Model III in the works, which will be the cheapest Tesla yet and rival the BMW 3 Series. Though this will not see the roads until 2017, so if you can’t wait, you can get a new or second hand Tesla Roadster, alternatively there is a 4 month waiting list for the right hand drive Tesla S and neither of these options are cheap!
