Tesla $128,500 Electric Car Drives Like Go-Cart on Meth:
Review by Jason H. Harper
Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- I get excited about exciting cars. There’s a nervous-expectant, first-date vibe when driving an auto that I’ve heard lots about and hope to really like.
The Tesla Roadster is one of those. The first all-electric sports car, it’s sexy and screamingly fast -- no wonder the hype has spun far outside the sphere of the auto world.
Throw in a hyperbolic chief executive officer, several lawsuits, delivery delays, a test drive by Arnold Schwarzenegger, a glowing profile in the New Yorker, and a $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy and those expectations balloon to the size of a zeppelin.
On a recent morning in New York City I crawl inside the Roadster to finally learn the truth. Will it be worth the fuss?
In 2006, a collection of Silicon Valley investors announced the development of an electric car based partly on the super- light Lotus Elise. By September 2009, Tesla Motors Inc. had delivered 700 cars, most at a cost of $109,000, not including a $7,500 federal tax credit.
I’m testing the first derivative, the new $128,500 Roadster Sport, which has 40 more horsepower, increased peak torque and special suspension. An air-cooled electric motor makes 288 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. With a top speed of 125 mph, it’ll travel from 0 to 60 in a hot-to-trot 3.7 seconds. The Environmental Protection Agency’s stated range for the car is 244 miles on a full charge.
Road Range
Of course claims and reality can go off on different paths like Cain and Abel. The Tesla puts out no pollution and will rumble with Porsches off the line, but unlike a second- generation Prius, there are compromises.
Range on my test drive is disappointing. At a full charge of the lithium-ion batteries, the car’s digital monitor gives me an expected range of 203 miles, and then begins downgrading that number more quickly than stock in a newspaper conglomerate.
After two consecutive round trips out of Manhattan, I have to cut short my itinerary and limp home in decreased-power mode, even though I’ve never put the Roadster in “performance” setting. (“Standard” and “range” are the other drive options.) My mileage is less than 140 -- more than 100 off the EPA rating.
That said, I’m trying to drive the sucker’s wheels off. I also know the readout is not accounting for an extra 10 percent battery reserve. Still, the idea of getting stuck on the George Washington Bridge in the rain, grimly holding a mobile phone to my ear is plenty dissuading.
Human Origami
This is still a car for super-cool early adopters. The Roadster, which has a soft manual top that tucks into the trunk, looks like a Lotus Elise with strands of misplaced DNA. Tesla says only 6 percent are Lotus parts, but its dimensions are similar -- by which I mean tiny. Harley-Davidsons will tower over you, cab drivers will pretend you’re not there, and clambering inside is an exercise in human origami.
The size and lightness means it drives like a go-cart on meth and handles on rails of air, sacrificing only a bit of the Lotus’s ideal weight distribution by dint of the heavy batteries.
What utterly separates it from a regular sports-car experience is laying onto the accelerator and having the landscape scrape by into shards of color, accompanied by no engine noise at all. I love a good engine note and eventually miss it, but I leave the stereo off, enjoying the hums and fan noise from this iPod on flying wheels.
The Tesla is stupidly, mouthwateringly fast. Unlike conventional engines, electric motors lend their full torque from zero revolutions per minute, so the get-go is ready from the get-go. The surge of power feels relentless, and I don’t run out of torque until almost 100 mph.
Carnival Ride
The sensation leaves passengers grasping for apt comparisons. Like a super-fast bumper car, says one; carnival ride, proclaims another; jet plane, mutters a third.
From the outside, the effect is even more odd -- a sport car in stealth mode. On the freeway I pull alongside a Porsche Carrera 4S and give him a look. He just looks away. Damn.
All new models have an upgraded interior, but my test model has an incredible $10,800 of options, including fine carbon- fiber weave and hand-stitched leather that sucks up gracefully around the instrument cluster. No wonder the final price comes to a staggering $145,650.
It gets a new touch-screen on the center column which reads measurements like range, pound feet of torque, how aggressively the car has been driven recently (as measured by a base line), how many kilowatts have been used, and the projection of how many barrels of oil have been saved.
Five Buttons
The only other controls are five glowing buttons -- park, drive, reverse, neutral and traction control. Beautiful, geeky simplicity.
At the end of my day I power the car off at its home garage and crawl out, thinking only this: I want more. Lots more.
If this is the future, it seems pretty good indeed. Say what you will of the controversies and loud media attention, Tesla did it and did it first. Nobody can take that away from them. And that’s very much worth all the fuss.
The 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport at a Glance
Engine: 375-volt electric motor with 288 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque.
Transmission: Single-speed fixed gear.
Speed: 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds.
Range: 244 miles in mixed driving, though real-world results will vary.
Price as tested: $145,650 (not including available $7,500 federal tax credit).
Best features: Supercar-class performance, no tailpipe pollution.
Worst features: Range anxiety, scant elbow room.
Target buyer: The hip early adopter who wants Porsche performance sans emissions.
(Jason H. Harper writes about autos for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this column: Jason H. Harper at Jason@JasonHharper.com.
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