RideLust

Just in case you’ve never seen the BBC television series Top Gear, I’ll summarize it for you: Jeremy Clarkson, the primary host and stand up comic, hates anything that’s battery powered, hybrid powered or diesel powered. He also hates anything from America and most things from Germany, yet he rarely finds fault with anything made in the United Kingdom. His love for Range Rover borders on the absurd, especially when he routinely slams American cars as being prone to electrical component failure. Mr. Pot, I do believe you’re calling Mr. Kettle black. It should come as no surprise, then, that Jeremy Clarkson panned the Tesla Roadster during a segment taped in 2009. After all, the car is built in America (based on a Lotus Elise platform) and powered by batteries, not gas. Read More…

The Tesla Roadster. Image: Thomas Doerfer

How much fun can you have for $25.00 per hour? I suppose that depends on your selectiveness and moral standards, but $25 per hour is about the going price for concert tickets, range fees plus ammo or a halfway decent dinner out (excluding drinks). If new car sharing and rent-as-you need company Getaround has their way, $25 per hour may rent you a Tesla Roadster, but only in the San Francisco market. As Gas 2.0 points out, the list price for a Tesla Roadster is slightly north of $100,000, which puts the cost of a monthly least at nearly $1,700. That’s mortgage payment money, so the best chance that most of us will get to drive the electric sportscar is via a Getaround rental, assuming that they expand the service beyond the San Francisco market. Read More…

Tesla’s savior has risen! The highly marketable Model S can be seen in this video, driving under its own power through an immaculate countryside unspoiled by fossil fuel. Read More…

Tesla's Model S Sedan. Photo: Mark Warren

It costs a lot of money to design and implement new propulsion systems. If you count the EV-1, General Motors has been working (intermittently) on electric car technology since 1990, which is a lot of R&D hours burned. When government subsidies for electric vehicles go away, Nissan will need to sell some 500,000 Leafs each year to recover the development cost and turn a profit. Much of the expense associated with both the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf comes for their batteries: both Chevy and Nissan use custom built lithium-ion battery packs, which undergo an extensive amount of testing to ensure cell optimization prior to assembly.

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I’m not much for conspiracy theories, and I don’t buy into the hype that GM killed the EV-1 as part of some vast OPEC-fueled scheme to keep us addicted to gasoline. When it comes to electric cars, here’s the cold, hard fact: gasoline won out as the propulsion method of choice in the opening years of the 20th century. Fossil-fueled vehicles have had 100 years worth of ongoing development, and have gotten incredibly safe, fuel efficient and practical. Electric cars, until recently, have been advanced only by pseudo-mad backyard visionaries, with large automakers avoiding them like the drunken blond with the open herpes sore on her lip. For the vast majority of buyers, they’re simply not going to represent the best choice in the near future.

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Not long ago I was asked as to whether or not I would actually pony up the cash and purchase an electric car. My knee jerk reaction was HELL NO! Then after thinking about it for awhile I started to rethink the question in terms of; what would an electric car have to become in order for me to purchase it? So much of what I love about the automobile is visceral. The looks, feel, sounds and smells are all part of what make an automobile attractive to me. For me to like a car you can better believe that it needs to have one hell of a presence to it. Today’s cookie cutter jelly bean rides are crap, and although they do serve a purpose, they have no place in my garage. Seriously, my version of hell would be having to drive a Toyota Camry everyday for the rest of my life… dear God that would suck.
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It’s no secret that Toyota’s influx of cash into Tesla probably saved the struggling electric automaker. In return, Tesla gets to build bland but marketable electric RAV-4s, while continuing with the development of their Model S sedan. Now battery maker and electronics giant Panasonic has stepped up to the table, offering Tesla $30 million in investment dollars. What does Panasonic get out of the deal, aside from shares of Tesla stock? In exchange, Tesla promises to use Panasonic batteries in their battery packs, and will give Panasonic preferential treatment over other battery suppliers.

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I’m still not sure the United States is ready for a full fleet of electric cars from our various manufacturers. They have limited range, no recharging infrastructure and so far, cost way to much to be considered economical. Combine that with a sub-200 mile range and one can see the many drawbacks that we are presented with. That hasn’t stopped Tesla though, the maker of the $101,000 all electric roadster. You see they’ve just opened their first overseas dealership in Toyko, Japan, the land where most of our electronic gadgets come from.
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Do you a Tesla Roadster electric car? If so, heads up: Tesla is recalling 439 of the battery powered sports cars, to reinforce a wire that could chafe against a panel, creating the risk of a short or an electrical fire. Tesla points out that the wire is part of the auxiliary wiring harness and not part of the Tesla’s propulsion system or primary wiring; in other words, we’re talking twelve volts and reasonable amperage, not high voltage and dangerous current.

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Now here is an interesting comparison. Motor Trend has decided to take the best electric car on the market, the Tesla Roadster and pit it against one of the best handling Porsche sports cars in existence, the new Porsche Boxster Speedster. The Tesla, as most people know is based around the body and chassis of the Lotus Elise, which as we all know is one the premier sports cars on the planet earth. With that in mind one would think that the Tesla would be a world class handler. With all those heavy batteries tucked under the Tesla’s skin though you’d have to figure that something in the performance department would have to give. Click play to see what the guys at Motor Trend thought. I have a feeling you’ll find this very interesting.

Source: MotorTrend.com