Drivers Republic: Video road test of the Tesla

[mopho]

[good2go]

Outstanding video - thanks.

[lc_09]

nice clip. thanks for posting this Morgan.

He offers a lot more info about the driving experience than the Jay Leno's Garage test drive. Very nice clip.

[thegoat]

Strong! When can I get one for 40k?

[Randy Chase]

Nicely done video. I want one now.

[mopho]

Having been in the car, it definitely is an interesting experience and very neat, but I still miss the noise. For me, the engine noise is a large part of the enjoyment of cars. Just putting a sporty exhaust on a car that is not even that fast, makes the car "feel" faster and more fun to drive.


If you have not checked out Latest car reviews, road tests, videos, photos, social community | DRIVERS REPUBLIC, there is a lot of cool videos, articles and photos on there. It was started by Chris Harris (in the video) from Autocar, and from Evo mag, Jethro Bovingdon and Richard Meaden

[...m...]

Originally Posted by mopho

Having been in the car, it definitely is an interesting experience and very neat, but I still miss the noise. For me, the engine noise is a large part of the enjoyment of cars. Just putting a sporty exhaust on a car that is not even that fast, makes the car "feel" faster and more fun to drive.

...certainly there's a lot of visceral experience which is fundamental to the appeal of our lotus cars - their proper manual gearboxes, mechanical steering, fixed differentials, and such as opposed to arguably better-performing and less-fussy sequential shifters, modulated steering, independent traction control, and similar systems which are increasingly common in most cars made today - and i think the feel of a rumbling explosion barely harnessed within a heavy block right behind our seats is a huge part of that raw connection which keeps us away from something like the tesla or the GT-R...

...at nearly twice the weight of an elise, the tesla won't handle anywhere in the same league, but then it's really an american car designed for an american performance envelope...two hundred twenty miles range is about what we might expect from a single tank of spirited driving in an elise, perfectly usable for just about anyone's daily driving needs, and although not enough to carry a proper morning's run through the twisties, that sort of driving clearly isn't meant to be the tesla's forte - its transmission is only rated for a couple thousand miles under normal use...

...the tesla is really more noteworthy as a (pending) business achievement than a herald of revolutionary technology: general motors' second-generation impulse/EV1 was achieving three-quarters the range nearly ten years ago, and the third-generation tropica/zebra sportscars managed over one-and-one-thirds the range with similar performance for about half the price...

[smicker]

Originally Posted by ...m...

...at nearly twice the weight of an elise

Yikes--what makes you think that? The roadster weighs only 700lbs more than the Elise.

[...m...]

Originally Posted by smicker

Yikes--what makes you think that? The roadster weighs only 700lbs more than the Elise.

...eep - you're correct!..i was looking at a comparison based on old and biased data; about 700 kg for the series 1 elise without passengers versus about 1400 kg for the tesla with passengers...

...accurate data puts the tesla 36% heavier than the elise...

[mopho]

Still, the Tesla is lighter than most sports cars these days

[CK_lotus]

Originally Posted by thegoat

Strong! When can I get one for 40k?

Exactly my point. I'll get it when's it's half the current price. Nice car, though.

[CertifiedCC]

I wonder if the next one will have regenerative braking technology like hybrids to charge the battery when it brakes. Now THAT would be cool

[mopho]

It does now

[njboy]

Thank you very much for that video. Just makes me want the Tesla or another high performance plug-in electric in the near future even more.

As for the engine sound I think that it is possible to hear the electric motor with a different chassis design. I have heard other eletrics rev to 18K and it sounds a lot like a turbine. Pretty cool if you are on an open back road.

[FLuXeXigeS]

cool vid mopho thanx for sharing!!!

ive said it before and ill say it again, only gripe i have on the Tesla Roadster is its mediocre at best "crusing" range ~270miles (claimed)

on the video he did ~60miles and used about ~1/3rd of the batt life = ~180miles (on the video)

[Cardinal]

Wow, I didn't realize how quick that thing is.

[SweetDaddyD]

I was surprised in the beginning when he reached in and popped the boot with a button. Not something you normally see in a convertible. (thought they never did that because of theft) Eh but why would anyone driving a $110K toy have anything valuable in the boot?
Also looks like the lamest part of the Elise carried over too- the key. Would of expected something really cool on the Tesla. I wonder if the Lotus trim shop would do custom seats for it? (and get rid of the pinched up leather around the headrests)

Very neat car. It would be awesome to see the technology produced on a mass scale at an affordable level to the common person. It's great for the celebrities that will own them to show that they are "green" but I wonder if there is one person out there with one in their fleet of cars that doesn't have a Range Rover that they drive around stinking up the earth more than they take out their toy car?

I disagree. I think the range is good an quite practical. Sure you'd need something with an engine for road trips, but that range would serve 95+% of people very well for 99% of the time. It takes the average driver a week or more to put that many miles on. I could easily use it, and would just need another car once every couple months for the road trips I take. But I don't think anyone that had $75K to put down on a Tesla and then the remainder when they eventually get their car (production is at what 10% max of what was originally expected?) that they don't have a few luxobarges and SUV's at the house to road trip around in.

[xtn]

It's a perfectly usable range for a lot of people.

For example, my usual Monday through Friday driving eats up anywhere from seventy to a hundred miles. Plug it in before bed and it's ready to go again the next morning. I don't think I'm on the low end of the scale with that mileage either.

No, it isn't much good for a cross country road trip. Still, there is a large market for which this range is perfectly adequate.

xtn

[mopho]

Originally Posted by SweetDaddyD

I disagree. I think the range is good an quite practical.

But the car is not practical. The range would be fine if the car was a 4 door or a hatchback

Every time I go out for a Sunday drive in the 7 I do at least 100+ miles of spirited driving. When I worked on the Tesla story we did about 80 miles of spirited driving and the battery was nearly dead when we got back. So as a toy, it would be useless to me, and as a daily driver it would be fairly useless to me.

[FLuXeXigeS]

Originally Posted by mopho

But the car is not practical. The range would be fine if the car was a 4 door or a hatchback

Every time I go out for a Sunday drive in the 7 I do at least 100+ miles of spirited driving. When I worked on the Tesla story we did about 80 miles of spirited driving and the battery was nearly dead when we got back. So as a toy, it would be useless to me, and as a daily driver it would be fairly useless to me.

+1

as mopho knows it takes me at least 70miles just to meet up for a drive in LA, then another few miles or so of spirited driving LOL
bottom line is i wont get home in time for dinner LOL

for me as a toy it still wont work

for around town yea it will to do errands (small errands) and for $100K+
i think ill just buy a honda ruckus 100+mpg ~$2500