Tesla Roadster in a Nutshell

By Jen

Editor

I met up with Tesla Motors‘ Jeremy Cleland and Conrad Schapira today at the Yokohama booth. They had the beautiful Tesla electric roadster on display there there, and they were awesome enough to give me an impromptu tour of the vehicle. Today was the first time I got a look at a Tesla engine compartment. The strip up top near the coolant reservoir (yes, it’s water-cooled) is the lithium-ion battery pack, containing 6800 individual cells; the block below that is the motor, housed beneath a tamper-proof cover to keep it safe from know-nothing Tesla owners; and below that is storage. Next up is the charging port, which hides out under what looks exactly like a gas filler door and features a pulsating light to indicate the battery’s level of charge. Here’s a shot of the underhood area, which isn’t as devoid of stuff as you might expect from a rear-engine car; as you can see, it’s got a brake reservoir and booster like any other modern ride, along with the guts of the Tesla’s combined cooling and a/c system, which routes coolant to the rear motor via the chassis. Finally, check out the Tesla’s swanky interior. The electric motor sends its power through only a two-speed transmission, which is what’s responsible for the roadster’s steep acceleration (0-60 in 4 seconds). The power output of this setup is burly (248hp, 284 lb-ft of torque), and it probably doesn’t hurt that the entire body is made of carbon fiber. Expect that getting in and out of the driver’s seat will take some getting used to: the ride height is comparable to that of an Elise or a Countach. All in all, the Tesla is a really hot little car, and Jeremy promises that they’ll be in showrooms sometime in the first quarter of 2008. Too bad that every car in the whole year’s production run is already spoken for! Swing by the Tesla site to get yourself on the waiting list.