Any Tesla fans out there?

[Stirling_Villeneuve]

I drove one in sunny CA, amazing acceleration but did it need a push on the BRAKES!!!!! Yikes, I tried braking at Elise type points, only the once mind you.... those batteries are heavy. It would be interesting to see how it handles compared to the LIz too, I just drove it up and down the grids, no corners other than 90 degrees! Nice carbon work btw.

[alan]

I wonder if the problem you found with the brakes was lack of use? In normal freeway driving the regenerative braking means that the actual brakes are not often used and can end up a bit rusty / wooden.

As for the weight, yes the batteries do weigh a lot (something that will improve as battery technology improves each year) but I dont find the handling too bad - you do need to tweak the adjustable suspension settings to dial out huge amounts of understeer that coome as standard.

Compare the Tesla weight to some other cars

910kg Lotus Elise

1220kg Tesla Roadster

1349kg Lotus Evora

1460kg Lotus Esprit S4s

[Stirling_Villeneuve]

The brakes were fine... I just needed a lot more of them than I was expecting, ( I think my passenger required a change of underwear ). I'm sure once you get used to the extra baggage it's a great drive, the acceleration was amazing in fact given the fact the car's a third heavier than an Elise it's insane!

[richardvg]

My comments are;

1.Looks like an Evora ( SORT OF ANYWAY)

2.Just as we all get to grips with the petrol and diesel technology,you want to hit us with this !

Congrats and i am sure the drive is awesome.....maybe i will skip the electrics and wait for the hover cars that are on their ways,kinda like the star wars vehicles.Those are really fast

Richard

[amwt]

The tax breaks in the UK are great.  No congestion charge, no road tax, 100% corporation tax write down,  no company car tax, no fuel benefit in kind if you charge at work.  Not sure about the promised £5K grant as the Tesla was missing from the list of qualifying vehicles - some have speculated that the government did not want stories about tax payers money being used to subsidize £100K sports cars (I can see their point).  Another story was that Tesla forgot to send back the form - perhaps the two are connected and it will be quietly be added to the list later.

I was told that Tesla pitched the tax breaks idea to HMRC as an alternative to the £5k subsidy. The argument was that £5k is relatively insignificant on a high value vehicle and to scale up the the subsidy would be a PR nightmare. The tax alternative is not media soundbite friendly, and plays right into the business owners market - it makes handy excuses for bosses to justify what is still a rather expensive car. When I had a chance to test drive one a few months ago I was nearly sold but I would have had a hard time convincing colleagues that we had that kind of spare profit against which to tax offset.

[Bibs]

This could be a game changer...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15735478

[alan]

Sounds promising and I hope it works but I bet it will be like everything else, us Brits invent it but I bet an overseas company makes all the money out of it.

On a related note if the battery pack on my Tesla was built using the highest capacity cells now on the market (ie a 2011/12 design rather than a 2008 design) then the range would be 395 miles rather than 250. I wonder at what point you stop worry about range between charges - 500 miles? 1000 miles?