Who cares? Everyone should care, this is the future. Can’t wait to get mine!

Yeah, this car proves that electric cars in fact can be quick. I can’t wait to see more of this.

If nothing else this will be utterly fascinating. Now there just needs to be some movement towards a fully on racing series.

Blakkar: will they have put those grooves in the racing surface like they do on slot car tracks?

I don’t understand this problem. A simple 3-speed planetary gear has been understood since the 1950’s. Could it be that difficult to adapt it to an electric motor?

They are struggling with a 2-speed trans? Thats a confidence builder. Tesla is on to something, but part of me feels like these guys are planning to get things started and then be swallowed by a big player. Like all the internet start ups, anything that looks promising is bought up before it becomes competition.

swerveEarly, chevron or bp would love to squash this.

I can’t believe they are intenionally shipping a vehicle with suspect parts. That’s a huge liability. Hope Tesla has a good legal department.

This car will either be known as the first electric car with wide appeal or will be remembered as an expensive liability. I’m hoping for the former.

well if it works it works i would be intrested to see how fast this goes areound the top gear track

The one thing that makes me want to buy this car is exactly the fact that it is electric. Tell me now who wouldn’t want to pull up to a light next to almost any car and when the green hits just take off going 0-60 in four seconds flat in near silence. Paint it black and it’s the road-going equivalent of a stealth fighter. And although the single speed tranny sounds dumb mark my words it will be fast. With only one gear the car doesn’t need to shift obviously which could even cut down that 0-60 time.

i really hope they grow in the coming years. it would be amazing if tesla became one of the biggest companies.

CTS Driver, Chevron and BP (along with the many other oil companies) are well diversed in their investments, which of course includes alternative fuel technology. Gasoline and diesel make up a rather small portion of refined oil….

This car is cool and I hope it does well. I hope it wakes people up to realise we need more nuclear power plants and cheaper electricity.

Blakkar: will they have put those grooves in the racing surface like they do on slot car tracks?
Comment by johnnycanuck, posted on January24 at 11:12 a

Johnnycanuck,

I wouldn’t laugh too hard. Some engineers postulated in the early 1980s such racing cars would simply run a recharge rail in pit lane to recharge for another 20 or so laps. Today that would mean smaller batteries more aggressive motors, as range is not as much of an issue, and the fastest pit times imaginable no battery swaps.

Electric motors are resoundingly simple engineering affairs so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to simply built more of these high output motors for consumer use, though with some obvious changes for daily use (i.e. not eating the battery in under 30 miles or out stripping a generator).

I wouldn’t knock EP autoracing, “Competition improves the breed”. A Racing series would allow engineers to really work on something new and make bring the cars back up to the fore along side or a head of the drivers.

Fascinating concept, Blakkarr. I mean 20 years ago how many would have laughed at the thought of a diesel winning Le Mans? I only have one problem with racing electric cars: no noise. To me it would be slightly disconcerting to be in the stands listening to nothing but the sound of gears whining. I absolutely do agree though, “competition inproves the breed”. And you’re probably right- it is only a matter of time.

I’d be more worried about them on city streets. How many times have you been caught off-guard by a Lexus or Mercedes sharking through a parking lot? EP cars will be even scarier.

But the noise of Racing will not be greatly missed in most venues. I imagine NASCAR fans will seriously miss the noise (aside from the crashes, and the drivers, the noise has to be the only other infield draw). I won’t. The thing is, the silence suddenly becomes an important tool. You will hear a mechanical problem before it becomes bad enough to kill the car. More tracks can be built closer to cities because the cars are quieter and thusly much less obtrusive. It used to be that cities and town s did not have suburbs spread far and wide so tracks could be built and used frequently much closer in.

Too true. The Vancouver Indy (CART series) was killed primarily because of noise complaints. The inevitable result of trying to stage such an event in the downtown core: the NIMBY crowd won.

Unless you have an electric car to drive everyday, you don’t quite understand how electric cars are very different in “torque” than petrol cars. The strain on any kind of transmission is incredible. I hope they stay with a single speed transaxle and keep away from shifting. My electric vehicle is governed at 75MPH and it sometimes gets up to 80MPH if I am going downhill. Thats fast enough for me, but not for Tesla. This car goes from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds like a super motorcycle. Its very fast and it only needs to go over 100MPH for the advertising of it, not reality. I say build it with the single speed of the motor and rock these units out of the factory. I for one have been waiting, and am very forgiving of the problems they may have with the beta units… I just want to go 0 to 60 all of the time. I only need 100 miles range too, so jackrabbiting will be my daily driving habits with this car. I can’t wait!!

I wouldn’t mind one, if only for cutting off ferraris and lambos…

I hope the lack of power of the current electric engine will force manufacturers to build lighter simpler cars. Today’s cars are gas guzzler partly because they have too many useless extras!

i’d be pissed if i reserved car #40.

jdasch1 nailed it, the reason this car has trouble with transmissions is that electric motors have nearly infinite and instant torque — make a 400 “hp” one and you’d need a dragster-quality carbon fiber input shaft to avoid twisting it into a pretzel.
I love the sound of my boxer motor, but there will come a day when Tesla tech is in many passenger cars, and we’ll all be happier for it.