Hey Cool Car Fans,

Here’s the “Cool Car Shot” of the year so far, the new 2006 Tesla Roadster that has recently been introduced to the world by Tesla Motors.

This new car company was founded by the guy who started Pay Pal, Elon Musk, and was funded with just $60 million out of Silicon Valley. They only used $25 million to get the first ten models developed. That’s a real change for an American car company.

As Musk explained in several interviews the goal of this car company was to prove that zero emission vehicles that run on electricity can be built, can be cool and will be embraced by consumers. So, how cool is the new Tesla Roadster? It will do 0 to 60 in just 4 seconds and runs totally on an electrical charge like your cell phone. At a $100,000 price tag the Tesla is said to handle like a Porsche or Ferrari with a 250 mile range.

About The Tesla Roadster

• Tesla is scheduled to go on sale late 2007 in select cities at $100K each.
• They have already had 170 pre-ordered and plan to sell about 250 cars for the 2007 model year.
• The chassis was licensed and built by Lotus Cars, which is similar in style to a Lotus Europa S with full carpeting, HID headlights, and slightly lower door sills than the Elise. Which explains the very cool European look of this vehicle.
• It has lighter carbon fiber body parts compared to the pure fiber glass used for the cheaper Lotus models.
• The Tesla weighs about 2500 lbs, with about 1,500 lbs in the rear of the vehicle.
• Electrical storage comes from a whopping 650 small lithium batteries.
• Regenerative brakes.
• The Tesla is equipped with a 70lb 250hp electric motor. Maximum torque at 0 rpm. Rev limit at 13500 rpm.
• It has a 2-speed transmission that is shifted electronically in a split second.
• There is an ARM-based engine controller running embedded Linux. Cool.
• Traction control involves ensuring rear wheels do not spin 2mph more than the front wheels. Working on a stability system which is far more complicated.
• Conventional radiator with conventional coolant reservoir to cool batteries and motor.
• 2-prong plug to plug into regular mains. Two charging kits provided. One for quick charging in 3 hours at home. Another to be used on the road.
• Tesla is claiming a 250-mile range.
• Final chassis development work currently done at the Lotus test facilities by Lotus engineers.

Be sure and watch the Yahoo Tesla Roadster video released earlier this week.

If you ask me, this is the future of the American car company. Tesla didn’t come out of the world of automobiles, but is more like a dot-com start-up with plenty of intellectual property. This will definitely be a company to watch this year and in the future.

What do you think?

Cool Car Guy Rating:
**** – Extremely Cool

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Auto Broker – John Boyd “The Cool Car Guy”
John is an automotive consultant with JFR & Associates in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle!
jboyd@coolcarguy.com