Tesla Roadster falls short of performance claims

Posted Mon Jan 28 2008 7:22 AM by Ralph Hanson

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.

Gallery: Tesla Roadster

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Reader Comments

Mon Jan 28 2008 12:00 PM
Gus says

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!
Mon Jan 28 2008 9:52 PM
ohmy says

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
Mon Jan 28 2008 11:24 PM
Gus says

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.
Thu Jan 31 2008 3:56 PM
anne says

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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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