So I drove a Tesla roadster two weeks ago...

A few weeks ago I flew out to Tesla Motors to discuss some business with them.
Luckily they were able to schedule me in for test drive. Oh my. What a blast.

It does indeed perform like they claim. I was driving in highway traffic and decided
to step on it. ZOOM ZOOM I weave through half a dozen cars and look down to
check my speed and gasped! I quickly applied the brakes to get back
down to legal speeds.

It's not as nimble as it's elise counterpart, but it sure was a blast drive!
It won't be long until this kind of technology will be commonly available to
everyone!

wow very jealous. Will we see Fenix lights in Tesla's now?

i saw youtube of that and no one knew the car was running ...does it make any noises when high revving , can you actually feel like the car is turned on...its gotta feel weird when your sitting in a car that seems like its off but accidentally hit the gas and its blast off that must of been awesome

qip said:

i saw youtube of that and no one knew the car was running ...does it make any noises when high revving , can you actually feel like the car is turned on...its gotta feel weird when your sitting in a car that seems like its off but accidentally hit the gas and its blast off that must of been awesome

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In 1959 or so a friend was stopped for having a loud muffler on his car.
The car was a 1951 Chevy and you could literally eat off the engine not that he would let you.

The cop said "You have pipes"
Friend said "No", Cop said "yes', friend said "no", cop said "Start the engine"
Friend said "It is running", Cop said "no", friend said "yes", clever cop said "rev it up"
Friend did. <really small print> vroom, vroom</really small print>
Cop left.

LED-holic said:

wow very jealous. Will we see Fenix lights in Tesla's now?

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Not very likely

qip said:

i saw youtube of that and no one knew the car was running ...does it make any noises when high revving , can you actually feel like the car is turned on...its gotta feel weird when your sitting in a car that seems like its off but accidentally hit the gas and its blast off that must of been awesome

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It has a similar whine you hear in a electric golf cart. The only difference is
the whine is a higher frequency AND you get thrown into your seat.

The only regret is that I didn't take any pictures

So when are you getting one?

It's amazing what 6831 Li-ion (18650) cells can do with the proper engineering.

I wish that I could justify spending a hundred grand on one.

I'm looking forward to seeing a production Tesla tested. The first drives that I have read about have been non-instrumented and in less than ideal (damp & cold) conditions.

JetskiMark said:

So when are you getting one?

It's amazing what 6831 Li-ion (18650) cells can do with the proper engineering.

I wish that I could justify spending a hundred grand on one.

I'm looking forward to seeing a production Tesla tested. The first drives that I have read about have been non-instrumented and in less than ideal (damp & cold) conditions.

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No I'm not. Not at this point... maybe a few years down the line when they get cheaper

JetskiMark said:

I wish that I could justify spending a hundred grand on one.

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I could justify it in a minute, its the spending that's the problem.

I got a ride in one at the ZEV Mandate hearing.
luckily Darell was there and snapped a pick when we were pulling back up otherwise no one would believe me.

What an awesome car. One day I will own one.

Glad to hear about you fun experience David. I'll bet that was a very unusual feeling to accelerate without a power curve and in relative silence. I'm sure projects like this help to benefit battery technology for the rest of us.

WOw great car David.

I saw one last year at Goodwood Festival of Speed, it was sitting in the pits and not many people knew what it was, dam shame.

I wish I had seen it go up the hill. Would have made a contrast to all the other cars that were very loud.

I'm going to go to Goodwood FOS again next month, I'll keep my eye out for the Tesla .

Awesome! Those are super sweet. I saw one up close on the road a few days ago, but it would have been a bit awkward to hop out of my car, knock on their window, and ask for a test drive.

My sister, who was with me at the time, had no idea what it was or why I was speechless.

I made a small edit in my first post. Anyway, I've never driven anything more exciting.
Last year I test drove ACpropulsion.com 's converted xB. And while it
was also impressive hauling 5 grown adults at breakneck acceleration, it wasn't
half as cool as the tesla.

Instead of a loud exhaust and a manly growl from the engine bay, all I heard
was the wind rushing by and that slight whir that sounds like a turbo spool.
There was lots of road noise which I suppose is normally masked by loud
exhausts. It's hard to describe it all. If I could afford one I'd be on the
list right away

I'm jealous, but happy you had a chance to enjoy a ride. I would be so freaked about it getting stolen, or in an accident with it. Imagine the insurance if you could even get it insured.

Also great pix mdvb747 !!

I... am... jealous! Really, this sort of thing is the future of automobiles. The only question I have is how much do the battery packs cost, and when you need a new one will it cost as much as the fuel would have cost in the meantime? I hope by that time the technology will have dropped hugely in price.

TorchBoy said:

I... am... jealous! Really, this sort of thing is the future of automobiles. The only question I have is how much do the battery packs cost, and when you need a new one will it cost as much as the fuel would have cost in the meantime? I hope by that time the technology will have dropped hugely in price.

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I don't know about the Tesla (which is awesome, btw :twothumbs ), but apparently a Toyota Prius battery pack is currently $2500-3500, and should last for 100,000 miles minimum, typically expect 150,000 miles, and some have been reported up to 200,000+ miles.

If the Tesla battery (which would probably need more capacity than the current Prius battery, being all-electric instead of hybrid) were to cost 3x as much ($10,000 -- the rumored battery price for the all-electric Prius being developed) before expected future price-drops, if it lasts 100,000 miles, that would be $0.10 per mile.

If you compare to a car getting 25 miles per gallon (which tends to be about the best you can get from a high-performance car; many are lower than that), I think that would be the equivalent of paying $2.50 per gallon for gasoline.

Hm, thanks Aluminous. That puts some numbers to something I've been wondering about for a while. I'm glad it's not any worse than that. I look forward to mass produced Teslas.

Regarding batteries, I honestly think we're 5 to 10 years away from supercaps being competitive with chemical cells in terms of energy density. Once that happens, battery pack life in an EV is a non-issue, not that it's that big a deal now with cells like those from A123 Systems. With hundreds of thousands of charges possible for a supercap, supercap battery packs will outlast the car they're in many times over. Also, power density is much greater. Acceleration will basically be limited by how much power the motor can absorb and available traction.

I'm glad I'm not the only one looking forward to an EV future. Anyone here think Tesla Motors might be the new Ford? I've often said that the company which mass markets EVs won't be an established auto company, but rather an upstart which has nothing to lose.

4sevens said:

No I'm not. Not at this point... maybe a few years down the line when they get cheaper

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Or when you sell one Titan T1A right?