Tesla Roadster News
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If the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, 2011 Nissan Leaf, 2011 Coda Sedan or 2011 Tesla Roadster are a little too modern for your tastes, an eBay auction ending this weekend could offer just what you’re looking for. But is it and other converted or one-off cars worth buying when commercially made cars capable of a higher range and better support are just around the corner? Unique Car, Electrified The unusual car detailed on eBay is certainly handsome. Based on the classic 1938 SS100 sports car, this all-electric version for sale in Canada offers the lucky winner the looks of the legendary British...
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Tesla's Nemesis - Electric Lotus-Based Sports Car From U.K.Tesla knew what they were doing when they selected the chassis from the British Lotus Elise sports car as the basis for their Roadster. The bonded aluminum chassis is spectacularly light by modern standards and also incredibly strong and rigid despite being a roofless design. It also has a large...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla Gets Jolt Of Power As Panasonic Buys $30 Million StakeWe have to hand it to Tesla Motors. Over the past year the Californian-based automaker responsible for the fast, sexy 2011 Tesla Roadster 2.5 and 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport 2.5 has experienced a pretty good year. Not only has the Palo Alto firm survived its initial public offering, generating over...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Racer Or Commuter? Just What IS The 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport 2.5?If you regularly read AllCarsElectric you’ll know that last weekend we were lucky enough to borrow a Lightning Green example of Tesla’s latest incarnation to the already-famous electric two-seater. But while most commentators view the 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport 2.5 as little more than a...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
A Weekend With The 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport 2.5 (Video)If you saw yesterday’s 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport 2.5: First Drive Review you’ll know that we were lucky enough to borrow a Lightning Green example of Tesla’s latest electric sports car for the weekend. Three days, 100 kilowatts of electricity, a couple of hard frosts, countless...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
2011 Tesla Roadster Sport 2.5: First Drive ReviewThe Tesla Roadster is known among gearheads and electric car advocates as being the sports car that smashes all preconceptions about electric vehicles. So when Tesla announced its aptly-named revision to the iconic all-electric car we just had to see if the Californian-based automaker could beat...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Pretty much anyone who's driven one loves the performance of the Tesla Roadster, the first modern electric car with a lithium-ion battery pack. The 2011 Chevrolet Volt is a much less radical electric car than the Roadster in certain ways, and one of them is its accelerator response. Volt: Just like an automatic GM's engineers have tuned the control software to mimic the behavior of a standard gasoline-engine car fitted with an automatic transmission. There's the standard idle creep at a stoplight, and if you lift off the accelerator, the car coasts freely, with little regenerative braking...
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Touched By Tesla: Why Tesla’s Future Lies In EngineeringDespite what some electric car conversion advocates will tell you, making a good electric car is extremely hard. It takes skill, money, resources and many hours of time. What’s more, the history books are littered with the names of small independent companies who tired and failed to produce...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
The 2011 Tesla Roadster 2.5 What Do YOU Want To Know?We’ve already covered the updated 2011 Tesla Roadster 2.5 upgrade on AllCarsElectric and although our John Voelcker has given the 2010 Roadster a 7.4 out of 10 over at TheCarConnection, we’ve yet to put the 2011 Roadster 2.5 through its paces. Updated with a new grille, some performance...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Hey Ron Howard: So Electric Cars Aren't That 'Gay' After All?The news came via a Facebook status from another automotive journalist: "Interesting. Phrase 'Electric cars are gay' pulled from Ron Howard movie." To which we could only respond, huh? [UPDATE: Turns out that there's even a Tesla angle too.] Turns out the upcoming movie The Dilemma, starring Vince...
John Voelcker -
Touring Tesla: Electric Car Startup Struts Its Green StuffIt's debatable whether Tesla Motors should even be called a startup. It's five years old, it has almost 1,400 cars on the road, and it has 700 people working for it globally. Yesterday, in a bid to reinforce its credentials as a real automaker--the kind that can design, engineer, test, and build a...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Plays Cautiously, Recalls 439 Roadsters Over Potential Fire RiskTesla Motors, manufacturers of the all-electric Tesla Roadster and Tesla Roadster Sport has decided to recall 439 of its sexy sports car, over a potential fire risk. The Palo-Alto based automaker has often been in the news this year, from its roller coaster initial public offering back in June...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Tesla has recalled 439 Roadster 2.0 and 2.5 models due to a low-voltage cable that might be defective. A 12-volt auxiliary cable is the culprit. The cable could lose power, which would affect the headlights, taillights, turn signals/hazard flashers, and airbags. On one vehicle, the cable caused a short, which in turn led to a fire. Tesla plans to re-route the cable and add a protective sleeve. The company has notified the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) and has started contacting customers. Owners of these models can also contact their dealership for more...
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Auto X-Prize Winners Finalize Plans To Bring Unique 2-Wheeler To MarketLet’s face it. We haven’t been particularly nice about the Automotive X-Prize. While the multi-million dollar competition was originally designed to seek out new engineering talent and encourage automakers to go green, the event became a holding pen for the misfits of the automotive...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Leaked Sketches Show All-Electric Audi R4 Spyder. Is It Real?The Internet is often full of tip-offs, spyshots and conjecture about everything from governmental policies to new car models. With the Paris Motor Show just weeks away we’ve seen all sorts of rumours and predictions about vehicles that we’re likely to see there. But the rumor mill has...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Forget Smart Phone Connectivity, EV Returns To Simple PleasuresDoes the 2011 Nissan Leaf leave you feeling uninspired? Does the 2011 Chevrolet Volt appear too aggressive? Is the 2011 Tesla Roadster just too sporty? Do you long for classic looks, big wheels and great all-round visibility? This weekend an electric car will be sold at an Indianan auction house...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Epic Electric Vehicles Unveils New Torq RoadsterEpic Electric Vehicles is a little known company based in the U.S. that manufactures all sorts of electric modes of transport including boats, ATVs and now street-legal roadsters. The company’s latest effort is the new Torq three-wheeler, which kind of looks like an edgier, stripped down...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Small, Electric Car Gets Fined For Polluting In U.S.Tesla Finds Themselves In Another Fine
Jonathan McGrew -
With electricity not always generated through renewable methods, it can be hard to claim that an EV is truly zero-emissions. It's generally accepted that you aren't pumping any gasses out the back as you drive along, though. Well, the car shouldn't be anyway... Despite this, electric vehicle manufacturers are still required to comply with the "Clean Air Act" by supplying the EPA with a "Certificate of Conformity" for their cars. Tesla apparently ignored the memo, and now they're staring down the barrel of a $275,000 fine for non-compliance. Oddly, the company complied in 2008 but their...
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At 307 MPH, Ohio-Built Electric Racer Is Anything But SlowLand speed records have long been a integral part of motor racing, but for many years electric vehicles have been viewed as slow and cumbersome. With a 0-60 mph time of less than four seconds, the 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport certainly puts the myth of slow vehicles to bed, but just how fast can an...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Tomorrow's Hot-Rodders Will Take to Electric Cars, Just WatchHeaders. Cams. Pistons. Liners. Ports. Carbs. Crankshafts. Filters. Mufflers. Are these all words we'll start to see disappearing from the tuning magazines of the future? Mankind has always wanted to go faster, whether that's in a car, an aircraft, a boat or even on a horse. Tuning is an essential...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla's Elon Musk Sneers at 'Primitive' 2011 Nissan Leaf BatteryAutomakers often do comparison ads showing how their features or specs are better than their competitors', but they don't generally trash other makers' designs in public. Like so many conventions, this one doesn't seem to apply to Elon Musk, CEO of venture-funded startup Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA]...
John Voelcker -
What Range Anxiety? Daihatsu EV Does 623 Miles On One ChargeLast October, Simon Hackett and Emilis Prelgauskas set a new distance record for a production battery-powered vehicle: a hugely impressive 313 miles in a 2008 Tesla Roadster. That's around 70 miles more than the EPA's rated range for the world's best -known EV. Unfortunately for them, not even a...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla Motors Reports Wider $38.5M Loss, But Says It’s On TrackAs predicted, Tesla Motors posted higher losses for the second quarter during its earnings announcement today — its first as a public company. The electric vehicle maker says it brought in $28.4 million revenue, but lost $38.5 million ($5.04 a share), up from the $29.5 million lost last quarter...
John Voelcker