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Tesla Roadster falls short of performance claims

 
4 781 views Jan 28, 2008

2008 tesla roadster motorauthority 001

Tesla Roadster falls short of performance claims

Tesla Roadster falls short of performance claims

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Tesla’s long and arduous journey of getting its all-electric Roadster to production only came to an end last week with the announcement that previous engineering problems would be solved and that the first car was ready for delivery. It appears now that initial announcement could have been a little hasty. First drives of the car have revealed that the Tesla Roadster doesn’t even come close to meeting some its official performance claims.

Tesla claims the Roadster can drive on a single charge up to 220 miles on its ‘maximum range mode’ and 165 miles whilst in ‘standard mode’. The guys from Autoweek only managed to get 93 miles out of the car before it went into a limp-home mode. Then there were the transmission problems, which included gearboxes not shifting gears or swapping cogs involuntarily.

The situation isn't as bad as it looks. These tests were done with the car being driven at or near its limits. Other reviewers have been getting more respectable numbers when driving the car at regular speeds. Further, MotorTrend said the car has a “supple” ride and it benefits from “rapid” acceleration. They even claim it has what it takes to match the performance of the likes of Ferrari and Porsche.

We just hope these test cars weren’t production ready and Tesla will be able to smooth things out before sales of the $98,000 EV start.
Tesla Roadster

HI-RES GALLERY: 2008 tesla roadster motorauthority 001




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Comments (4)

  1. By Gus Posted: 1/28/2008 12:00pm PST

    That car is so cool, it's a bummer to hear anything negative about it.
    But for that price it had better be perfect.
    Ferrari and Porsche? I'm sure that's true, but a Yugo could outrun it on any trip over 300 miles...
    Somebody please solve the quick battery charging issue now!
     
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  2. By ohmy Posted: 1/28/2008 9:52pm PST

    they the first, so gotta give the boys at tesla credit, unfortunately, ev like their gas brethren lose out when driven hard, and everyone knows what happens to batteriers when they are charged and recharged over the course of their life...not good. hopefully these fixes can be made with future production...or we may not here from them and that, my friends, would be a shame
     
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  3. By Gus Posted: 1/28/2008 11:24pm PST

    Agreed.
    The ideal car is an electric car with quick charging batteries, no doubt about it.
    Now we just need the batteries and the charging stations.
     
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  4. By anne Posted: 1/31/2008 3:56pm PST

    I am a student and my diploma thesis is about the new idea of hybrid-cars. It´s a current and exciting topic. I would be glad if you could tell me what you think about hybrid-cars. Even if you don't know anything about it.

    This is my short questionnaire:
    http://cmc.psych.uni-goettingen.de/wsg/index.php?sCode=005962f161b15fc8

    Thank you for helping me.
    Anne
     
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