Tesla Roadster enters production at long last

Remember a few dozen years ago when we heard the first batch of 100 Tesla Roadsters had sold out? Us neither, but we're assuming those were heady days. Since then we've seen delays, setbacks and untimely retirements, but Tesla Motors claims it finally has the car under production, and is naturally taking orders for the 2009 run -- 900 cars have been reserved so far. Despite the concrete language in this press release, we'll believe it when these silent beasts start hitting the road. And run our cycling-asses down.

[Ellianth @ Mar 18th 2008 12:08AM]

Totally off topic, but can we have an engadget forum please?

[Aguiluz @ Mar 18th 2008 12:47AM]

Seconded. (+1)

[Reader @ Mar 18th 2008 12:55AM]

Yesss, more organized fanboyism debates(if you can call them that).

[JohnTitor @ Mar 18th 2008 12:09AM]

bring on whitestar

[kyle allen @ Mar 18th 2008 12:11AM]

also totally off topic, doom, overlords, crysis, blending... etc.

now that were all through with that,

yay! tesela roadsters fnally getting produced, good news eh?

[cmdwedge @ Mar 18th 2008 12:17AM]

God damn that's an awesome looking machine. Hopefully this proves to everyone that 'electric' and 'green' don't mean 'slow and pathetic'.

I'd buy one in a second - if I were rich.

[CraigJ @ Mar 18th 2008 1:11AM]

Not slow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RKJ0zk3NOc

[cmdwedge @ Mar 18th 2008 1:20AM]

That video's great. I'm still too poor for a Tesla though.

Is there anything YouTube can't do? Yes, apparently. Make me rich.

[Darkest Daze @ Mar 18th 2008 2:34AM]

There's nothing weirder than a car that fast and all you hear is the tire spinning. I love the sound of a good performance gasoline engine but that's just badass.

[Jhongerkong @ Mar 18th 2008 12:28AM]

DO WANT


...in Canada

[Drew @ Mar 18th 2008 12:29AM]

How is this car in anyway green? sure it saves energy in the fact that it idles with 0 energy loss, but, that electricity has to come from somewhere, and I highly doubt that the electricity to charge this thing is from solar panels or wind turbine...

[Ian @ Mar 18th 2008 12:37AM]

wow dude just wow... yes we all know of this fact. and you know what go look at every other post in categories that have to do with this kind of a subject. then you will know my response because its been said WAY too many times. goddamn

[DT @ Mar 18th 2008 12:48AM]

Central power generation at a large plant is vastly more efficient than that produced by a small internal combustion engine, even when you consider losses due to transmission.

[Craig @ Mar 18th 2008 1:07AM]

Show how much homework you've done. It doesn't idle, y'see no clutch y'see. Direct drive. On or off.

[CraigJ @ Mar 18th 2008 1:17AM]

Yeah, you're right, and while we're at it, let's get rid of TVs, computers, refrigerators, air conditioners, lights, and everything else because those use electricity too. In fact, let's all just go live in the wilderness and start little camp fires by rubbing 2 sticks together to cook and stay warm. Oh, wait, burning wood releases carbon. So, lets all just eat grass and live in caves, but then we'd still be breathing and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, so that's no good. I guess we should all just die. Yeah, that sounds like the green final solution.

[happy_penguin @ Mar 18th 2008 1:58AM]

It still helps in that it is a platform for developing technology. High technologies usually start in high end cars and trickle their way down to the mass produced models. Naturally, some of the technology will fly and some will die like an Edsel, but it can still be important, the development that is.

[Sukhminder @ Mar 18th 2008 7:21AM]

Very good point. Depends on the source. If you own this in British Columbia (Hydro power) 0 emissions / fossil fuels used. When used in an area where the power source is coal... CO2 galore.

[Steve A. @ Mar 18th 2008 10:42AM]

Also keep in mind, the amount of electricity it takes to recharge the car is right around a couple bucks.

It's been a long time since we've been able to go over 150 miles on just dollar or two of energy.

Here's some hard numbers for you - taken from DOE info:

On average, it takes 51KwH of electricity to charge this car. With aggressive driving at high speeds, that gets you 150 miles (250 miles when being gentle).

On average, a coal plant outputs 2.117 lbs of CO2 per KwH. So 108 lbs of CO2 is generated to power this car directly from a coat plant. This at a cost of about $3.06 (@ $.06 a KwH).

An internal combustion engine, on average, generates 1 lb of CO2 per mile. So to go 150 miles in a car, you generated 150 lbs of CO2. Using the CAFE fleet average of 25 mpg, and gas cost of $3.50 a gallon, it cost you 21 dollars to go the same distance of 150 miles.

So even when powering the Tesla by a coal plant, it's better for the environment and costs 85% less to go the same distance.

[Longhorn @ Mar 18th 2008 12:36AM]

Well, Drew, some of consumer electricity comes from completely zero emission sources such as solar and wind like you said. A hundred percent of traditional gasoline automobiles' energy comes from fossil fuel.

Plus, gasoline won't last forever, but nuclear power could easily replace fossil fuel power plants. Nuke plants on cars? Not so quick.

[eminem213486 @ Mar 18th 2008 12:43AM]

its been said, its always easier to change hte power grid than to change your cars individually. but ull have to do that anyway for an electric. but you just wont have to wait 3 days for a charge with a rooftop solar panel or something.

[SuperQ @ Mar 18th 2008 3:20AM]

Rooftop solar (atleast in CA where these are going to be more popular) on an average size suburban home can generate more than enough electricity to charge daily.

Take this calculation if your round trip commute were 50 miles. (I'll be very conservative about these calculations) The Tesla has a range of 200 (low side), so 1/4 of the battery capacity of 50kWh. So that's 12.5kWh needed per day. Say we round that up to 15kWh if you stop by the grocery on the way home. Say you can only park and charge for 6 hours while you're at work. Of course I'm now assuming you can solar charge at work, or I guess you could offset grid capacity by pushing solar at home back to the grid. To charge in 15kWh in 6 hours you need 2.5kW capacity solar panel. Round that up a bit to say 3.5kW because you don't get that all year. That's about a $25,000 panel system with inverter. (Just a guess, based on a couple websites, you can probably get one for cheaper, depending on the power company rebates etc)

With the price of gas at $3.50/gallon, and a car with similar performance driving conservatively getting 25mpg. That's 2 gallons of gas a day. If you drive to work 50 weeks a year, and don't count weekend driving that's 250 days of driving, and $1750 in gas, and $250 in oil changes at 5x$50. So at $2000, the solar system breaks even at 12.5 years assuming gas doesn't increase in price. (hah)

If the price goes up at ~25% per year (which seems likely) linearly (+400/year), and you can get the panel system for 20k, it pays off in a little over 9 years. Since solar systems are designed to last 20-25 years, it's an overall win.

[SuperQ @ Mar 18th 2008 3:22AM]

Whups, I incorrectly tabulated the compounding gas price cost. Pay off time if gas goes up $400/year reduce the break-even to 7 years for $20k

[kro-bar @ Mar 18th 2008 8:10PM]

Yes, but if electricity costs around $0.10/kwh on average, that would only be $375 a year. Over the 25 year lifespan of your $20k solar system you will only get $9375 worth of electricity. that doesn't take into account increases in the price of electricity, but it is still going to be far cheaper than the solar panels and you don't have to pay for it up front.

[Rick Mellor @ Mar 18th 2008 1:00AM]

Production!? I live in San Carlos so I've been seeing these things on the roads for years. I have an MB SLK 32 AMG ... boy the Tesla is quick! Guess how I found out. ;)

[Reid @ Mar 18th 2008 1:04AM]

I saw one randomly on 101, then saw the 2nd round press intro where they had 6 or more of em on the highway together at once. Awesome car!

I've got a silver M Coupe, wave if you see me.. I don't see a lot of SLK 32's, but I've seen a couple. I work in Redwood Shores. Just put a thule rack on my car, it'll probably be on there for the next 4 months at least :)

[porschedevotee @ Mar 18th 2008 1:32AM]

Yours isn't purple by any chance, is it? I've seen one of those running around on the peninsula recently. Oh, and if you see a black SLK 32 AMG driving like a jackass, that's my friend who specializes in challenging people to race and them getting them tickets (usually inadvertently). Ask me how I know!

[Al @ Mar 18th 2008 2:29AM]

"...And run our cycling-asses down."

Have a bit of sensitivity, will you? There are many folks who visit the site on a regular basis from Silly Valley. In light of recent events, that comment is really insensitive.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_8530018

[Rocketboy @ Mar 18th 2008 8:48AM]

OH NOES! SOME SAID SOMETHING THAT HURT MY FEELINGS>>>>>...>>.>.

Al: BOO!

[classicX @ Mar 18th 2008 7:52AM]

I like the styling, but the Fisker Karma floats my boat a bit more, and [may be] cheaper.

http://www.fiskerautomotive.com/ [warning - flash heavy]

[jpintl @ Mar 18th 2008 9:28AM]

I've worked next door to Tesla's technical center since it opened, and have yet to see one of these at their facility.

Hopefully that will change over the next few months.

[RA @ Mar 18th 2008 9:30AM]

I want one. I wish they were cheaper.

[Nate @ Mar 18th 2008 5:27PM]

Me too, but I have to say that I am pretty impressed with the price given the level of technical achievment. Being the first serious all electric sports car, it's a steal.

I'm guessing that they could have charged much more and still sold out.

[Ferrari0923 @ Mar 18th 2008 12:09PM]

pretty sweet