Updated: Full steam ahead at Tesla

Tesla has announced that its upcoming Roadster recorded 255 miles on a single charge in a recent EPA City test cycle. It hit 235m on the highway portion of the test, giving it an EPA combined rating of 245m.

Despite several setbacks earlier in the year, including the resignation of its founder and CEO Martin Eberhard back in August, development of the Tesla Roadster is still on track and production is set to ramp up at the start of next year. Tesla has announced that it will build 50 vehicles in the first quarter of next year and another 600 units for the remainder of the year.

Engineers are currently working on durability and validation testing for its final prototypes and have driven one car over 245 miles on a single charge for the combined EPA cycle. Other aspects engineers are focusing on include the brakes and suspension settings, cooling for the electric motor, the two-speed electrically-actuated-manual-shift transmission and a new battery system.

The expected driving range for the new roadster has been downgraded to around 200 miles from the originally claimed 250 miles. However, engineers are working diligently to reach the original target and appear to have been successful as initial testing has shown. Top speed for the car has been tested at 130mph and acceleration times for the 0-60mph is claimed to be less than four seconds.