
2011 Tesla Roadster 2.5: New looks, wheels, seats, less noise - jeff18
http://green.venturebeat.com/2010/07/01/2011-tesla-roadster-2-5-new-looks-wheels-seats-less-noise/
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samratjp
I wish they'd unveil more details about the Model S sedan. I thought it was
supposed to come out 2011, but this explains everything why it's pushed off.

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rjett
If nothing else, they've demonstrated they can do cool and sexy quite well.

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Robin_Message
It looks a lot like a Lotus Elise to me -- which is no bad thing! Also, I
wondered if this was deliberate, or whether the problem is lightweight
sportscar design is heavily constrained? (Of course, taste is constrained
too.)

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dtegart
It is a Lotus Elise with different fascias and interior. And powertrain of
course. Tesla isn't really a car company, they are a powertrain company and in
my opinion they should stay that way. It is where their strengths are,
building cars is hard and expensive, and lots of other companies do it well.
What the current car companies don't do is electric powertrains and all the
controls that go with that.

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angstrom
If they ever do an all electric NASCAR that will be one quiet race with the
exception of the air wrenches changing tires and automated battery replacement
swapping.

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nuclear_eclipse
Around Top Gear's test track, they were able to get IIRC about 30 minutes of
full speed usage before he battery was completely drained, at which point it
was a 6 hour recharge to top up the batteries again. Definitely not practical
for any sort of extended racing series like NASCAR, etc.

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klous
Back of the napkin calc: NASCAR cars get 5 mpg, hold 22 gallon tanks --> 110
miles max range. Average speed of 170 mph --> a maximum of 39 minutes of
racing.

If they currently pit every 35-39 minutes or so, it wouldn't be completely
impractical to pit every 30 minutes or so: have pit crews do a quick swap of
the electric batteries at the same time as a the tire change.

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nuclear_eclipse
> have pit crews do a quick swap of the electric batteries

I think that's the impractical part...

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hcho
How is it more impractical than changing the tires?

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dtegart
Well batteries are much much heavier and would likely be in the centre of the
car for weight distribution, and you need to make the electrical connection.
Changing a tyre during a race just takes a speed gun and one nut.

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Oxryly
You just need to develop some sort of "liquid battery" and pump it in some
sort of receptacle, or tank, in the car.

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chr15
This vehicle is priced at $101,500 after federal tax credit, according to
Tesla's website. I don't think the article mentions it.

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illumin8
It seems wrong to subsidize a $100K sports car with a tax credit.

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natrius
It'd be more efficient to tax bad things like carbon emissions than to
subsidize good things like electric cars. If you've been paying attention to
our political discourse lately, you already know how low the chances are of an
effective version of that policy getting implemented.

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jrockway
Let's face it, this is not just another car company. They are selling a high-
end luxury car -- but oh yeah, it's electric. It's almost hard to believe.

I hope their stock continues to do well.

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adamilardi
They look hot. I would love to see a mass market version. Even a 50k model
could potentially see wide adoption.

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devonrt
Quieter, eh? I had a chance to drive the original a while back and it was
already pretty damn quiet.

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jm3
It'll be interesting to see if they can beat what the Smart Roadster [1]
delivered. My gut intuition is that Tesla hasn't the chops.

[1] <http://www.google.com/search?q=smart+roadster>

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ryanwaggoner
What? That's not an electric car...how is this related? Why not compare it to
all sports cars ever built, which would definitely turn up some better cars
than either the Tesla Roadster or the Smart Roadster?

