Tesla Roadster starts production today!
Click the Roadster for a high-res gallery
After building a couple of dozen prototypes over the last two years and a single previous production model last December, Tesla Motors officially started series production of their Roadster today. Production unit number 2 started making it's way down the assembly line at the Lotus factory in Hethel England today and should be completed in the next couple of days. At this point these "production" cars are actually more like a late Beta or Release Candidate 1, given that they still have known issues. These first units are equipped with the original motor and modified single speed transmission to ensure durability. What Tesla calls Drivetrain 1.5 is currently undergoing testing and verification in preparation for a running change later this year. Until the updated motor, transmission, and power electronics module are ready, the build rate will be held at about one car per week. Once the new hardware is ready, the rate will be quickly ramped up to 15-20 cars per week. The car being built today is destined for Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard. This and other early build cars will be retrofitted with the new drivetrain hardware once it has been validated.
Gallery: First Drive: Tesla Roadster
[Source: Tesla Motors]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Randy C. 5:35PM (3/17/2008)
Yes yes yes. Keep up the good work. Show GM how to build an electric car, because they just don't seem to be able to build another EV1. GM is just wasting time and money reinventing something they actually did well before.
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colonelmontgomery 5:48PM (3/17/2008)
Cripes! GM can learn nothing from these losers. Thank goodness GM is doing the Volt and not Telsa. How many folks would tolerate getting a car that is known not to be ready for prime time?
This is what a new Telsa owner is told when they pick up their not ready for prime time car. "Sir, you will have to come back when we at Telsa figure out how to make a transmission that works and gives you the performance we promised." Only Telsa would get a pass on such a silly approach.
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Dave 5:48PM (3/17/2008)
The sooner they get into higher volumes the better in my opinion. Once they do and demonstrate that there is a market and profit in these cars the other manufacturers will follow suite, hopfully sooner than later. Then there will be multiple manufacrers in Mass Pro and hopefully prices will start coming down so I can buy one.
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Tim 6:31PM (3/17/2008)
(#3) If it wasn't for these "losers" GM would not even be building the Volt!
We need a national holiday or at least a birthday cake for the rebirth of the mass produced, highway capable electric car!!
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BlackbirdHighway 6:33PM (3/17/2008)
The cars Tesla will be delivering over the next few months are completely usable, they just don't have the acceleration performance desired. They still have good performance, great handling, great looks, and great range. Tesla will retrofit those cars for free later this year.
And how many electric cars will GM deliver over the next few months? None. This year? None. How many next year? None. 2010? Maybe, we'll see.
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texmln 6:35PM (3/17/2008)
Sorry, but 'beta' cars built for company co-founders DO NOT COUNT as production vehicles. Until Tesla builds a fully functional car for Joe Schmoe then please don't bother to post this crap.
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colonelmontgomery 7:05PM (3/17/2008)
Within 5 years Telsa will be bankrupt. All these cute cars will be orphaned. Enjoy the ride.
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rgseidl 7:11PM (3/17/2008)
Cheered on by millions, they limped across the finish line...
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kert 7:26PM (3/17/2008)
kudos to Tesla, even if they are stretching the word "production" here..
Lets hope they get WhiteStar sorted solid early on. No transmission, please, mkay ?
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Joseph 10:32PM (3/17/2008)
I cannot believe it's almost been two years.
Congratulations Tesla Motors! The next chapter of EVs has begun.
I find it humorous to start production on St. Patrick's day. Was this on purpose? ;)
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jake 4:22AM (3/18/2008)
texmln
"Sorry, but 'beta' cars built for company co-founders DO NOT COUNT as production vehicles."
Sorry, but I don't see how they are different. The only difference is Elon's car has the 2 speed (as revealed in a recent video). Martin's car will have the slower 1 speed that every customer getting the initial cars will have. NEXT week will be production car number 3, which will be exactly the same mechanically and reach a customer; so today DOES mark the start of production. They are still very much production vehicles. Sure, they don't reach the original acceleration performance target, but they will still function the same for pretty much any other task.
@colonelmontgomery
"How many folks would tolerate getting a car that is known not to be ready for prime time?"
May be not ready for prime time by your standards, but apparently enough for the customers. Again it works in every way the same as the final version besides from acceleration performance. Customers were willing to take the acceleration hit to get their cars earlier and that's the important part; shows they have some pretty dedicated customers. Seems the people who are bickering the most are the ones sitting around hoping that Tesla can't deliver their final revision (or even this initial version) and will go bankrupt like all the other vaporware companies.
For the Volt comparison: GM doesn't even have a working MULE, okay, and people are already praising them for all their innovation. Tesla has more than 20 working prototypes and 1 production car so far after their unveiling on July 19, 2006. The Volt was unveiled 5 months later on Jan 7, 2007. What do they have so far? 2 concept vehicles (first one and an updated one); not even a working mule. I give them the fact that Tesla started already even before the unveiling with their first working mule in 2005. That's 3 years from mule to production. It's not bad for a whole new type of vehicle from a company with much less resources than GM (they only had 18 employees when they finished their mule! On August 13, 2007, GM already had 150 engineers working on the Volt!)
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Chris 6:49AM (3/18/2008)
Losers, apparently the only losers are some of the twits that post here. GM is doing it right. These guys are out with a gimmick to make a buck.
The person who compared it to the EV-1 takes the prize, your village wants you back. So we are to think that 100k car somehow shows up GMs effort?
LOL.
and people wonder why green leaning people are thought of as freaks
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Nicholas 8:00AM (3/18/2008)
I would like to call this historic days in the automotive history. Keep up the good work Tesla!
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Jared 8:06AM (3/18/2008)
The weekly Tesla hype. They STILL don't have the drivetrain ready.
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Chris M 1:53AM (3/19/2008)
What a bunch of sniggering bickerstaffs! Latching onto any tiny perceived flaw with Tesla Motors to launch an attack. Are you afraid that Tesla might threaten your beloved GM?
Tesla Motors engineers have solved hundreds of problems, the transmission issue was an unexpected issue that caused problems late in the development process, triggering unavoidable delays in production. But lo and behold, they found a way to start production anyway, and they have a fix in the pipeline already. So there!
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