Tesla Roadster: Electric sports car a sweet ride
November 12, 2007
For the sake of all things green in keeping the environment clean, and for the sake of weaning this country away from a dependency on fossil fuels that keep us globally entwined in political and economic crisis, alternative means of fueling our lifestyle is not a choice but a necessity.
As the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention.
One of the environmentally friendly and low fuel cost alternative energy sources to powering a car is electric. However, up until now, the limitation to an electric car has been the frequent recharging required and the lack of speed.
Tesla Motors appears to have solved any limitations to the electric car with the development of the Tesla Roadster.
Last summer, Tesla Motors introduced the first high-performance zero-emissions electric sports car to 350 guests who attended a special event held at the Santa Monica Airport. Test rides were offered to celebrities and early adopters of environmentally friendly forms of transportation such as Ed Begley Jr., producer Richard Donner, businessman Michael Eisner, PayPal co-founder and Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk, CEO Jeff Skoll, and car collector Joel Silver. Those who signed up to purchase the special edition Tesla Roadster are known as the Signature One Hundred Members.
The Tesla Roadster does not come cheap. The first electric car that can go from a speed of 0 to 60 in four seconds, top out at 135, hold a single charge for 250 miles and costs less than two cents a mile to drive is expected to cost about $100,000 dollars.
Red Hot Chili Peppers Michael Flea Balzary bought a Tesla Roadster sight unseen. This past week, Balzary was able to take the Tesla Roadster for a drive and his experience as quoted on the Tesla Motors blog is impressive.
“I get into it and pull away from the curb. Dead silence wow!!!! Man it was unbelievable. It drove like nothing I have ever been in before, made my Porsche feel like a golf cart! It took off like a rocket ship, handled so sensitively, it was just amazing and fun and thrilling. I am so happy I went with my gut and bought that car. Yeah it is a long wait, but man, the thing is awesome. The silence makes ya feel like you are floating, and it just rocks, it was the funnest car I have ever been in. To enjoy driving as much as is possible in that Tesla, and to pollute nothing, no emissions, into the air, is a great great feeling.”
Balzary is planning on charging his new electric sports car from the solar power of his new home.
“The Tesla Roadster delivers sports car performance without using any gasoline,” said Martin Eberhard, CEO of Tesla Motors. “This is what we hoped to achieve when we started the company three years ago, to build a car with zero emissions that people would love to drive.”
For more information on the Tesla Roadster, visit the Tesla Motors website.
[Photo credit: Tesla Motors]