Tesla readies new transmission, ramping production

To date, since production began in March, 27 Tesla Motors Roadsters have been delivered. Now the production rate is expected to ramp considerably thanks to a deal with BorgWarner to build the enhanced "Powertrain 1.5." The Telsa designed, single-speed gearbox is expected to help provide 30% more power allowing the Roadster to once again accelerate from 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds as it did with the original, flawed, two-speed transmission. It's also more efficient resulting in an extended, 244-mile range (221 miles currently) from a single charge. All Roadsters equipped with the interim transmission will be upgraded free of charge. Tesla says that it will now ramp production to 10 Roadsters per week, hitting 20 per week within a few months, and 40 per week by early 2009. Most of which we expect to find riding the PCH in total, luxurious, battery-powered silence.

[Viaono @ Sep 10th 2008 6:11AM]

Does this thing have "300 charges cycle to 80% full capacity" like the iPhone?

[Chris Johnston @ Sep 10th 2008 6:39AM]

No.

http://www.teslamotors.com/efficiency/charging_and_batteries.php

[PC @ Sep 10th 2008 7:44AM]

It's a YES
It's not 300 cycles but a 100,000 miles before the battery degraged.

Tesla Roadster will give you more than 100,000 miles of peak performance driving. After that point, the battery will see only gradual drops in performance over time.

[Chris Johnston @ Sep 10th 2008 11:34AM]

yes, apologies, I read that shortly after my reply in the fifth gear article. http://fifthgear.five.tv/jsp/5gmain.jsp?mnk=221&featureid=1203&description=Tesla+Roadster

Also, Tesla claims that a lot of materials in the batteries are recoverable. It could be interesting to see replacement batteries subsidised by a replacement scheme whereby drivers get new batteries for a smaller charge whilst the old ones are "regenerated" to make new ones.

[King Kang @ Sep 10th 2008 6:39AM]

I wonder when they will show us the meaning of Soviet irony, invade Paris, and use their Tesla technology to short circuit our plans?

[Geir E @ Sep 10th 2008 6:40AM]

The british fifth gear drove one of this. Compared to the v8 beast driven after it lacked the sound. But it seemed amazingly fast. I wish I was rich ;)

[kccboy2004 @ Sep 10th 2008 6:47AM]

Can you imagine how many woulsd be sold if this had an Apple logo on it

[Marcos @ Sep 10th 2008 8:26AM]

I don't know, but I'm sure it'd get a lot more posts on Engadget ;)

[kccboy2004 @ Sep 10th 2008 6:51AM]

Can imagine the fack-up that would be ? It would be like Heathrow Terminal 5, 10 times worse.

Tesla would deliver the car to your driveway, hand you the keys, then send you an email telling you that at the next 'update' they would fix the ignition problem, this will probably mean that you might be able to switch it on. You would have to wait a couple of months for it to come out of Alpha testing.

[Chris Johnston @ Sep 10th 2008 6:57AM]

And of course you'd have to pay $10 for every update

[ed. @ Sep 10th 2008 7:22AM]

why in the world would you bring apple into an article about cars? WHY? And why would you put your first question in a post and then answer it with another post which is supposed to be some feeble attempt at a joke? WHY?

[kccboy2004 @ Sep 10th 2008 7:32AM]

@ed, i refer you to Viaono. In addition however, it is sport and duty. Fight the good fight with all thy might. The great Satan Jobs must be defeated at all costs, and all his minions, his demons an iWhores sent back to hell. We who fight this fight against Jobs, fight on the side of righteousness and good.

[Viaono @ Sep 10th 2008 7:55AM]

I asked because I want to know, not making jokes. OK?
So if I put my question like

"Does the battery degrade after 350 charges cycle like the Nokia N96?"

Will you have any issue with this question?

And after I did some research
the answer is "YES"

But not 350 cycle, it's 100,000 miles til degrade happen.

[ed. @ Sep 10th 2008 9:04AM]

^^ +1

your question is actually useful in finding out more about the car, whilst still giving a few people a laugh. kccboy2004 post's are just flame bait

[Jaimi @ Sep 10th 2008 10:51AM]

Of course, you wouldn't have an "ignition" problem, since it's not an internal combustion engine. You don know it runs on batteries, right?

[Chris Johnston @ Sep 10th 2008 6:58AM]

And of course you'd have to pay $10 for every update

[SteveJ @ Sep 10th 2008 8:02AM]

I don't know why you idiots feel the need to bring up Apple here (and no doubt you, bizarrely, then complain about all the Apple articles in those articles), but since you've mentioned it, I have an iPod Touch and I haven't been annoyed by the small upgrade fees. Mind you, I would have been royally pissed had they charged 2.0 owners for 2.1, since 2.1 is really "2.0 fixed", but they didn't do that. Why don't I mind it? Because it's pretty clear that the iPod Touch isn't just an MP3 player now, it's an incredibly small computer, and because the price they're asking for these upgrades is small. I pay for Mac OS X updates on my Mac and they cost a lot more than $10. I have had a much harder time justifying the upgrade from 10.4 to 10.5 then I did justifying the upgrade from iPod Touch 1.x to 2.x. Indeed, at home I haven't upgraded to 10.5 yet, but I paid and upgraded to the iPod Touch 2.0 firmware on day 1. There was no question that it was worth it. It was a massive upgrade in terms of what it made this little device capable of. Now, you'll say that the iPhone users aren't paying for these upgrades, but of course you're wrong about that. They are paying for it with their monthly fees, many, many times over. Ditto for other phones that get upgrades for "free".

[SteveJ @ Sep 10th 2008 7:49AM]

This car would be incredible, but I hope they'll also make an affordable car. And I don't mean $50,000 affordable either. I mean $25k or less, preferably much less. We need somebody to make a small, safe, practical EV car for those of us who just want a reliable, low-cost-to-operate EV to take to work and to run errands near home. 100 miles range would be way more then enough. Room for 4, 5 with with a squeeze, some cargo space for groceries and such, radio, air conditioning and heat and that's it. I don't think the major manufacturers are going to do it unless a manufacturer like Tesla steps up to the plate first and forces their cards.

There is one issue with EV cars that needs to be resolved though: noise. Namely that they are extremely quiet. This is great if you can see, yes, but if you are blind and crossing a street when one of these rolls by it is not so good. I'm not sure what the best solution to this is, but a simple solution would be a device that makes a non-annoying low-level hum or some such sound when at lower speeds. It wouldn't need to be on for higher speeds where wind and tire noise would be more substantial.

[Mike C @ Sep 10th 2008 9:13AM]

I do agree with you, however I am just going to point out that the low level of noise may not necessarily be for the blind, but those who I almost hit on my bicycle every day. Like the girl walking her Pomeranian while texting with her headphones enough to share with me. You see, and this may only be in urban conditions, but those who are visually impaired wait at a cross walk until they hear the beeps for the cross walks letting them know the light is red perpendicular to them.

They need to add in low noise to alert those people who seem to find it acceptable to not pay attention when there are 1-2 ton metal objects moving around them, but then again, would it be such a bad thing if they just let them run silently?

[kccboy2004 @ Sep 10th 2008 8:12PM]

Mike,

it goes something like this.....

TAP...TAP..TAP...TAP...SPLAT!!

[Josh @ Sep 12th 2008 4:14PM]

a lot of cars today have those radar sensors that start beeping like hell when youre parked within like a 4 foot distance from a wall...

[Carl Vitullo @ Sep 10th 2008 7:59AM]

I don't see why they used a traditional transmission with this. A CVT would've been way cooler and there wouldn't have been an issue with shifting at full torque.

[SteveJ @ Sep 10th 2008 8:10AM]

Doesn't a "single-speed" gearbox essentially mean that there is no traditional transmission? There certainly is no shifting. This is one of the many, many benefits of EV cars - many fewer moving parts and much less complicated such parts.

[Marc-O @ Sep 10th 2008 8:33AM]

A CVT would never be able to handle the torque and RPM the motor puts out, to start with...

[MadMike @ Sep 10th 2008 9:13AM]

You don't need a CVT nor do you need any real multi-gear transmission for that matter. Electric motors have a flat power curve. You give it X volts it will have Y HP & Z lb-ft of torque for as long as your feeding X volts to that motor. Internal combustion engines have a "power curve" which is a RPM range where they get maximum HP and Torque, transmissions are made to keep the engine in that torque curve to provide smooth and longer acceleration. Then some years later they added "overdrive" which allows a car at velocity to use less engine power to maintain that velocity and thus increase gas mileage.

EV's don't need it, you can easily have a computer change the amperage & voltage to lower power consumption while keeping speed.

There is even frequency harmonics you can use to optimize the motor also - but thats too technical to get into in a comment.

[Andrew @ Sep 10th 2008 9:51AM]

MadMike:

Good read. I actually always wanted to know about electric motor power curves, etc and you just answered my question.

+1

[Carl Vitullo @ Sep 11th 2008 9:21PM]

Ok, I'd just heard some various things about them, I guess I didn't get all the facts.
Thanks for clearing that up though.

I didn't know that motors had a flat power curve either. Thanks for that too :D

[thedesolate1 @ Sep 10th 2008 8:35AM]

Next up firmware updates......

[decapitor @ Sep 10th 2008 9:05AM]

does anyone know if you have to follow certain recharging habits in order to keep the batteries in good shape? i.e. can you plug it every night and forget about it or do you have to try to let the batteries drain a certain percent before recharging? I hear all kinds of things about laptop batteries needing to be drained at least once a month and am not sure if it's all hearsay.

[Speney G @ Sep 10th 2008 9:21AM]

Wait wait wait...BorgWarner? Senator John Warner has now become a Borg?

[Mark @ Sep 10th 2008 1:05PM]

Yeah, just let me go to the bank and borrow the $100,000 needed to buy this car, even though I can never afford to pay it back...

[d889 @ Sep 10th 2008 2:46PM]

borg warner is a good company, same one that makes the transfercase in my truck

ive seen a tesla driving around LA, pretty slick car.

[Josh @ Sep 11th 2008 11:35PM]

i really like the design on this car...at least compared to the designs of other energy-efficient vehicles today...*coughcough* prius, corolla, camry, civic...

im sorry if you happen to find beauty in those ugly beasts, but this world needs an attractive energy efficient car...

[schrosa @ Sep 25th 2008 1:17PM]

NOPE! I just saw Car #29 in my neighbor's garage. He swore it was #29.