2 thoughts on “Tesla”

  1. A British TV show Top Gear did a review of the Tesla roadster. It is based on the chassis of the Lotus Elise. So, they raced it against an Elise. The Tesla easily passed the Elise in the straights. When it came to the curvy turns the Tesla got its lunch eaten by the Elise.

    Also, while flogging on it around the track they were only able to get about 60 miles before it went into limp-back mode. They had a 2nd Tesla to play with but that one went into limp mode complaining that the electric motor was overheating after some spirited driving. When, they went back to the 1st car they found that the regenerative braking system had blown a fuse during charging and needed service. So, not the most reliable vehicles — a given seeing as they’ve only sold 100 or so.

    Despite it being a quiet car without the engine noise, it still has tremendous tire roar and wind noise throughout the cabin at speed. One noise that is particularly cool, though, is when the regenerative braking system is activated. It makes a very Jettisons like, RRRRrrrwwwwrrrr…. noise.

    Overall, they said they liked the car. But they seemed to think that EV’s in general were going to be made completely moot by hydrogen fuel cell cars. So, they did a follow-up car test with the Honda FCX. It was a crappy review and completely pandered to the overused, “ooooh look only water out the tail pipe” cliche that everyone always says when fuel cells are brought up. It is the same when electric cars are mentioned. Someone always has to point out, “they make max torque at zero RPM”. Yea, yea yea.

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