The pinnacle of electrification of cars.
As the successor to the first production car of Tesla, which was the 2008 Roadster, the development of the new Tesla Roadster was announced by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in November 2017.
The fully electric vehicle is said to be released after the release of the renewed Model S, currently Tesla’s most famous model car. Tesla promises a 0-60 of 1.9 seconds with a top speed over 250 mph (400 km/h). The Roadster would be capable of such incredible performance figures due to its staggering 10,000 Nm of torque and all-wheel drive system. This would make the Tesla Roadster the fastest car in the world.
The Roadster would break all records for acceleration and performance compared to traditional super cars with combustion engines. With an expected range of 1,000 km, the range for electric vehicles would be greatly outperformed. Currently, this record is also held by Tesla, with the Tesla Model Y which has a range of 508 km. This is the most interesting point to me. Although the Tesla Roadster might look like an electric toy for rich people, in reality, I think the Tesla Roadster will achieve 2 things that are very important in our search for a sustainable future.
The 2 reasons:
1. Just like with their Model S, the Tesla Roadster will make electric vehicles more appealing. Before the introduction of the Model S, electric vehicles were mostly low performance cars with boring designs. The segment was mainly intended for early adopters: drivers with a strong interest in sustainability and wanting to compromise on performance and design, in return for a more eco-friendly footprint with regards to their driving. After the Model S took the market by storm, the image of electric vehicles was completely changed. No longer where electric cars associated with compromising performance and boring designs. Instead, Tesla made electric vehicles a reasonable choice in the executive segment. The Tesla Roadster is capable of doing the same. Outperforming “classic” super cars, the Roadster will increase the appeal of electric driving world wide.
2. The tesla Roadster will push electric vehicle technology further with record breaking acceleration, top speed and most importantly: range. Currently, electric vehicles are known for their acceleration. The electric drive train makes it possible for the cars to have full access to their potential power from the moment you hit the pedal. However, their topspeed and range are often limited, due to the battery size. Batteries are heavy and therefore companies have to find a balance between the required performance (speed, acceleration, range) and how heavy they want the car to be. After all, the heavier the car, the more the weight is influencing the desired performance. I think the Tesla Roadster will push other car manufacturers to further develop the electrification of cars. This will result in more widely available models with increased performance at a more consume friendly price.
Do you have some savings laying around and has this blog article made you interested in the Tesla Roadster?
Prices are still to be announced for the European market, but the base model is expected to cost 200,000 dollar in the US, but the first 1,000 production cars (announced as the Founder series) will be priced at 250,000 dollar in the US. Future customers can pre-order the Roadster with a base reservation of 43.000 euro and a founders-serie reservation of 215,000 euro (for the Netherlands). For more information, check out Tesla’s website: https://www.tesla.com/nl_NL/roadster?redirect=no
Dear Tim, interesting article! Indeed, Tesla’s electric vehicles are quite an innovation. Especially the new roadster looks incredibly promising if I read through your article. However, I think you are missing one vital point here “in our search for a sustainable future” and I think Tesla is actually recognising this as a vital point as well. Of course, this also depends on how you would describe “a sustainable future”, but in the way I describe it, battery life (in number of total kilometers until failure) is essential for both the success of the electric car in general (so also Tesla) but also our “sustainable future”. The battery in electric vehicles is one of the most polluting parts. Both because of the physical resources needed to build such a battery, but also because it has a certain lifetime and it is not recyclable or reusable after failure. Therefore, I think the real innovation has to take place in the area of increasing the battery life. Especially, since electric cars are supposed to be our more environmentally friendly-way of travelling, besides being more appealing of course. Therefore, I think the lifetime of the battery will determine the actual success of Tesla’s new Roadster. What do you think?
Thank you for your comment Quint,
I think you raise a very valid point and I agree with you. The material and the mining of those materials is not really sustainable. It takes a certain mileage before electric vehicles actually become less polluting than traditional cars with combustion engines. Indeed lifetime of the battery will determine the actual success of the new Roadster, as the longer the battery lasts, the more reasonable buying a Electric vehicle will become. I know Tesla is working on this. Their new generation of batteries will likely be more sustainable as it has better performance while using less polluting rare minerals. Curious to see where this development is going.
Although not unbiased, these articles give some examples. You might be interested in reading as they can help further look into the arguments being made.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/22/21451670/tesla-cobalt-free-cathodes-mining-battery-nickel-ev-cost” rel=”nofollow
and
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/01/12/is-it-true-that-a-tesla-creates-more-pollution-than-a-conventional-car/” rel=”nofollow
or
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-batteries-less-polluting-than-30-cups-coffee-researcher/
I am very interested in the topic myself, so I hope you enjoy the read.
Hi Tim, really nice topic for any car enthusiast ofcourse!
Totally agree with you that this car isn’t just a toy for the rich. As is the case with ICE cars, the most expensive supercars introduce technologies and innovations that later drip down into mass production vehicle. That is also the whole point of developing a car like this. Supercars just offer the freedom to experiment, probably with success.
The development in the field of electric cars is extraordinary (just think back to the first Tesla roadster in 2008 which was dreadful) and the driving range is extended rapid with ever more efficient batteries. However, i’m wondering whether there will be a moment that these cars can be truly sustainable. Battery production is so damaging like Quint describes as well that there must a architectural innovation like the solid state battery to make a leap towards zero-emission.
I still have high hopes of hydrogen power as well. For sports cars like these though the fuel-cells are still way to weak unfortunately.
Looking forward to see how the intended stats of this car hold up in reality!
Hi Matthijs,
Thank you for your comment.
I hope you enjoyed the read as much as I enjoyed the reading and watching of the lastest information on the Tesla Roadster while making this post.
What you wrote about the 2008 Roadster made me smile. I too remember the days that the Fisker Karma was considered ground breaking and the hottest electric vehicle on the block. Oh how far we have come since… (luckily!)
Thanks to companies like Tesla, now cars like the Roadster (or Taycan from Porsche) are cars that make electric vehicles more and more desirable. Cars that people can dream of one day owning.
Valid point with regards to sustainability, just like what Quint pointed out. I personally dont expect any form of individually owned automobile to be 100% sustainable in the near future. I mainly hope EVs can offer a more sustainable alternative to their traditional counter parts. Especially in the usage and mining of rare earth materials and the production of electricity (think Germany with its many coal powered plants) there is still a lot to improve on.