The Tesla Roadster Sport – Making Green Cool
The Tesla Roadster Sport, a child of Silicon Valley, financed by 38 year old PayPal billionaire Elon Musk, it is the first fully electric supercar with commercial viability. An unconventional motoring start-up founded by Californian software engineer Martin Eberhard.
Eberhard’s aim was to develop a car that ran on sustainable energy while, unlike all its competitors, being practical enough to use every day. The difficulty was developing the technology and putting it in a car everybody could afford. The answer was simple; they decided that their first venture would have to start out like the high tech gadgets, hyped-up, over priced and rare, becoming cheaper with time and volume. This would mean that the first line of consumers would fund the development of the company.
The first concept was born, a supercar to prove that green cars can be sexy, sporty and practical. Tesla went about designing the battery and engine system whist outsourcing the design and manufacture of the car itself to British legends Lotus.
The cars were shipped from Norfolk to California where the engines were installed and charged bringing the final cost of the car to around 80,000. It’s not the most expensive supercar in the world but considering the investment in the future of the motor industry, some are considering a steal.
The company was backed by South African billionaire Elon Musk, who sold PayPal to eBay; he was currently investing in commercial rocket science with an aim to put men on mars. Musk had strong ties with Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin who also invested in the company, ties to a film company gave Tesla a chance to market the car to George Clooney, who in turn convinced Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and a list of celebrities to rival the Oscars. With celebrity endorsement came publicity and the company was the darling of the ‘cleantech’ industry.
The car went into production last year and currently has a waiting list of over 1000 including all of the investors along with a’ who’s-who’ of the rich and famous as jumping on the eco-wagon becomes increasingly fashionable.
Official testing has shown the Roadster can achieve 0-60 in 3.7 seconds with a limited top speed of 125mph, this means it can out-drag a Ferrari while keeping you pinned in your seat from the instance you touch the pedal, all in absolute silence.
Tesla say they plan on selling the intellectual property for their engines to some of the European car giants which should cause a rise in electric car technology, meaning even if your next car isn’t electric, the one after probably will be.
Although the Tesla is capable of speeding, it’s electronic speed limiter complies with motoring law.
categories: cars,motoring,driving,speeding,electric,hybrid,sustainable,motor industry
Popularity: 2% [?]





