It's Friday: you, too, can buy a $300 Tesla Roadster with exhaust pipes
Tesla Style kids car - Click above for image gallery
This isn't the first time we've seen a toy representation of the Tesla Roadster, but it is the strangest. First, the good news: it's all-electric (mega points for authenticity) and it's quite cheap, at least comparatively, at just $229. It's fully remote controlled and even has an ipod/MP3 player connection. Interested? Check it out over on Scootercatalog. Of course, the URL for the order page says that the car is "Corvette Style," and there is a major problem with this "Tesla Style" kid car": four exhaust pipes!
Our friend Chelsea Sexton thought that little mistake was worth emailing the company about, saying that "I'm thinking you might have a fundamental misunderstanding of what a Tesla is...Given that it's fully electric, there is no exhaust, and therefore no tailpipe - let alone dual exhaust on each side!" She got an unusual response: "Thank You for the opinion, others have a different one though." Right. Because none of us can possibly agree on the number of exhaust pipes an EV should have. Fail.
[Source: Chelsea Sexton, Scootercatalog]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John Rowell 12:31PM (6/19/2009)
Epic fail. Looks nothing like the Tesla Roadster. And I'm not talking about the exhaust pipes either. Clearly it wasn't even designed to imitate the Roadster! Only some generic sports car. Looks like Scooter Catalog is just trying to market it as something it isn't. If anyone wants to contact them about it, their email is at the bottom of the product page.
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Nixon 12:57PM (6/19/2009)
Dumb thread. And email them because they have fake tailpipes? Give me a break. It's a kid's toy.
Makes me want to buy a Tesla just so I can hang a bunch of those big fat chrome fart pipes off the back -- just to piss off folks who are too uptight for their own good.
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Ghen 10:49AM (6/22/2009)
That would be pretty hilarious.
joe 1:23PM (6/19/2009)
Can they even market the car with the Tesla name??? Tesla should sue them.
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EVO 2:14PM (6/19/2009)
autobloggreen and Jalopnik take another step towartds each other.
Simple fix, which Nixon gets. Offer the stick on shinky plastic dual exhaust pipes for actual Tesla Roadsters at $300 a pipe as an option. Revenue source. Especially since you will continually have to replace them as they fall off (stay put while the car launches) under the extreme Tesla acceleration. I'd set mine up so it blows (biodegradable) soap bubbles behind it.
Epic win. I expect to the see the resolved homologazation between the "Kids Power Ride-on Car Tesla Dream Roadster Style" and the actual Tesla Roadster, through actual Tesla owner modification, on Jalopnik. The purple seats and pink body is obviously the preferred style conversion for the real Tesla.
My favorite part is the "Electronic accelerator - the car will stop when your foot is off the accelerator", which obviously is intended to mimic the regenerative braking effect that BMW put on the mini e for single pedal performance driving.
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Bill 3:18PM (6/19/2009)
Is this the way that today's kids need to drive a toy car, with a remote control even when they're sitting in it? A sign of future real car designs to come?
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Rick 4:06PM (6/19/2009)
Doesn't look like a Tesla to me?
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stevejust 5:02PM (6/19/2009)
Of any real car, it looks to me most like a $440,000 Porsche Carrera GT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_Carrera_GT
Maybe Tesla will just sue them for trademark infringement. Probably has a better chance of winning that than the suit they filed against Fisker.
And maybe a better chance than defending itself against the suit by Eberhard.
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Chris M 11:56PM (6/19/2009)
The designers went for a generic "sports car" look, so they wouldn't have to pay royalties to any auto maker, and also the kids could then pretend it was whatever model car they happened to like - Ferrari, Miata, Lamborghini, Corvette, Roadster, whatever.
Of course, the marketing department then tried to tie it into the hottest car around, even though it doesn't really look much like the Tesla Roadster.
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Drew510 11:04AM (6/22/2009)
Not that anyone plans on buying one, but these are very cheaply made. You'd be better off buying a Power Wheels brand car so you could actually find replacement parts.
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TANKD0G 11:35AM (6/22/2009)
Are you sure that isn't just a Tiburon with the roof cut off?
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