2008 Tesla Roadster First Drive Video

By Edmunds Video Productions | Published September 25, 2009

3:56 min

2008 Tesla Roadster The electric car has had its share of obituaries over the years. But the new American car company Tesla is determined to prove that the concept is a workable one. The manufacturer has just launched the Tesla Roadster � an electric car that looks good and can hold its own in the performance arena. The Tesla Roadster didn�t exactly hit the ground running. Its launch was postponed twice because transmissions were breaking. It was a situation that led to a corporate shake-up and spiraling development costs. But thanks to additional funding from private backers and venture capitalists, the sleek Roadster has seen the light of day. With a price tag just shy of the six-figure mark, this Tesla isn�t your average green machine. With a maximum range of just 220 miles, it�s most viable as a second or third car for weekends and the occasional short commute. The car gets its juice from a battery pack that holds over six thousand lithium ion batteries. Each is about a third bigger than the double-A batteries that you�d use in your digital camera. They�re linked together in a unique package that incorporates liquid cooling, safety fuses and fancy power control programming to eliminate worries about what battery engineers like to call �thermal events.� The batteries feed 410 volts to the roadster�s air-cooled AC induction motor, which redlines at 13,000 rpm. Make no mistake, though: The Tesla Roadster is indeed an authentic sports car. It�s nimble, fast and responsive. It�s also lots of fun to drive. Turn the key and you�re greeted by the stillness of the electric motor as it patiently awaits your instructions. Depress the accelerator pedal and there�s a slight whine as the motor starts spinning, then the tires grab and you�re rolling in an eerie rush of wind. The unassisted steering is heavy at low speeds, but the effort lightens up as the pace gets brisker. Acceleration is never a problem, since the car offers 248 horsepower and between 205 and 211 pound-feet of torque. We drove the Roadster hard all morning, and when the time came for our official, instrumented acceleration run, we had only nine miles of range left in the battery pack. The Tesla�s electronics are programmed to kick into a torque-limiting, energy-saving mode with this type of battery drain. We added some juice during a stopover in Tesla�s shop, hooked up to the 70-amp, 240-volt home-charger unit that comes with each car. Still, we had only 23 miles on the range meter and a severe case of torque restriction when we began our acceleration run. As a result, the best zero-to-sixty that we were able to record was 6 seconds. We learned again that an electric sports car is quickest in the first few minutes that it leaves the garage. It just gets slower after that until you return home for a recharge. So far, the Roadster is off to a promising start. Tesla has pre-sold about 900 cars, and it plans to build and sell over 3,000 more in 2009 and 2010. The company has plans to expand production to include other electric vehicles, such as a $50,000 sedan and an even more affordable compact. But much depends on the success of the Roadster. We�ll see if Tesla has sold the first 900, or the only 900.