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Finally Top Gear has managed to get a Tesla Roadster, in fact they got two, to see how fast the electric supercar from California is on their home track.
Take a look at the video below to see how the electric roadster smokes Lotus Elise and how it brokes down after 55 miles. As always the mighty Stig is the one to test the car at last. And believe it or not the car is faster on the track than lot of German supercars.
Click here to see the video
Even though Tesla has had a rough start, and they have not been able to get the production going as planned it looks like German tuning house BRABUS is ready, as they will be introducing the first tuned electric car at this years Essen Motor Show.
For the new tuning program BRABUS has come up with a new logo that has a lightning bolt. This new logo is the trademark of BRABUS Zero Emission vehicles.
Continue to read: BRABUS customization program for the Tesla Roadster
Tesla engineers have been keenly focused for some time on the new 1.5 powertrain, which has been tested extensively both on roads and at closed facilities.
Tesla’s engineer Iain Morrison took the all-electric Roadster to a Infineon Raceway in Sonoma California, which features a Compulink timing system to see how fast the car is on the drag strip.
Continue to read: Tesla Roadster runs a quarter mile in 12.76 @ 104.7 mph
Back in July Tesla Roadster #6 got into an accident right after the owner had taken the delivery. The car had minor damages and was very likely repaired soon after.
Only 60 Tesla Roadsters have been delivered to their owners so far. What we have here is another Tesla Roadster, that got into an accident in southern France on October 29th, when the sales director took the car into a turn at 100 kilometers per hour. The road was wet with a very bad visibility.
Continue to read: Tesla Roadster crashes at 100 kph!
Last month Tesla Motors had to cut 25% of its work force as it was unable to secure a $100 million investment round. Failure to raise more money has also slowed down work on their second all-electric car “Model S”, which is a four door sedan.
Just last week company reported that it needed the money to become cash flow positive, and that it was going to get $20 million as early as this week. Yesterday they got $40 million in the form of convertible debt from current investors. The company’s investors include Larry Page, Sergey Brin, CEO Elon Musk, and a few VC firms.
Continue to read Tesla Motors secures $40 million in financing
Yesterday CBS 60 Minutes aired a piece called “Race for the Electric Car”. The interview features Elon Musk of Tesla and GM vice chairman Bob Lutz. Musk shows us the car, talks about their customers and lot of other things.
Lutz tells us that GM was inspired by Tesla. He also talks about the software that runs Volt. Also Fisker Karma and Aptera are mentioned. Futuristic Aptera will be available already this winter.
Click here to see 60 minutes “Race for the Electric Car”
So far Tesla has delivered 27 electric Roadsters. Now Tesla Motors Inc. has selected BorgWarner Inc. for the production of a single-speed gearbox for the Tesla Roadster and is initiating a ramped-up production rate.
New gearbox won’t be called version 2.0 but instead Powertrain 1.5. Sounds ike a software update, but actually is a powertrain update in a Silicon Valley way.
Continue to read: Tesla Roadster gets a new Gearbox
Tesla Owner Mark Templeton has taken delivery of his Roadster, and made a video of his experience unboxed.
Mark also takes the Roadster out for a run to stretch its legs. Looking at the video it seems he is a very happy owner. For the record this is Tesla #16.
Click here to see the electric supercar in action
On April 16 Tesla released a statement about the fact that they were readying a lawsuit against Henrik Fisker, CEO of Fisker Automotive and Fisker Coachbuild, for purposefully supplying Tesla with substandard designs for their White Star electric sedan project and using Tesla information for his own Fisker Karma Concept.
Today Fisker Automotive responds with a statement that their Fisker Karma, a plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) 4-door sedan, is on schedule for quarter 4 2009 deliveries.
Continue to read: Fisker Replies to Tesla Allegations
