First Drive Review
A harbinger of a better future? The reinvention of the sports car? Few cars have been lavished with more praise before anyone has actually gotten his or her hands on them than the Tesla roadster. To be sure, the specs look great—it’s not just extremely rapid, it is fully electric. With everybody and his brother now driving a Prius, it is no wonder the Tesla is quickly becoming the vehicle of choice in Hollywood.
Given that electricity to power battery-operated cars is still by and large the product of burning fuels, we’re focusing on the Tesla's road performance instead of its potential to save the planet. And there is a quintessential place to assess a car's straight-line performance and high-speed stability—Germany's full-speed autobahn. This is not a full road test yet; in fact, Tesla might not hand out cars for a full road test until early next year.
Cozy Down
Drivers used to the Lotus Elise or other lightweight sports cars of its ilk will find nothing unusual about getting into the Tesla. You settle down almost to street level, enjoying a clear view of the surprisingly large wheels and tires on trucks around you. Were the Tesla not the attention getter that it is, it might actually be frightening.
Get comfortable inside the Tesla, and you may notice a familiar panorama. Its dashboard is carried over from the Lotus Elise. This fact and the Lotus-inspired exterior design have led some to believe the Tesla roadster is merely an electrified Elise—a claim that Tesla chief marketing officer Darryl Siry vehemently denies. In fact, the Tesla is three inches longer than the Elise and heavier by about 700 pounds. The extra weight is mainly due to the battery pack, which consists of 6831 individual lithium-ion cells. The rest of the car is lighter than the Elise, Siry says. The dashboard is carried over to keep the Elise's airbags.
Hand-crafted in look and feel, the metallic center console sports a shifter that knows just three positions: reverse, neutral, and drive. This car had the new one-speed transmission developed with help from supplier Ricardo, which replaces the earlier two-speed unit due to some teething problems. Check out the touch-screen display on the left of the dashboard, acknowledge the 13,000-rpm redline on the tach, and turn the key. After a few busy seconds of beeping and buzzing, the Tesla is ready.
