Elon Musk Tesla Motors 2014: Roadster to Have 400-Mile Range
Earlier this month, Tesla CEO and early investor Elon Musk teased a special Christmastime surprise for early adopters of the Tesla, more specifically those who bought the original Tesla Roadster.
Now, Tesla has unveiled that Roadster owners will be getting quite the upgrade. Currently the Tesla Roadster can travel an estimated 245 miles on a single charge, but Musk has announced that a lithium battery pack upgrade will increase the range of the Roadster to 400 miles, he said on Twitter, according to CNET. To put that in perspective, the Model S only travels 306 miles on a single charge.
"We will be demonstrating this in the real world during a nonstop drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the early weeks of 2015," the company announced on Friday in a blog post, according to SF Gate. It will be putting the new mileage to an actual test, hopefully avoiding the skepticism that temporarily plagued the Model S when some critics doubted its range.
The Tesla Roadster was the first highway-capable electric vehicle in serial production and a proof of concept for Tesla Motors.
It was released in 2008 with a base price of over $100,000, sold 2,400 units in more than 31 countries and discontinued production in 2012. While Roadster fans are happy to hear their electric vehicles will go a bit farther, on the other end of the innovation spectrum, the 85KWh all-wheel drive Tesla Model S is making waves.
The AWD Tesla Model S is officially the fastest sedan in the world. The instant delivery of the electric power produces a whiplash-inducing 691 horsepower at 1G. That's right: The instant delivery of power to the wheels accelerates the Tesla at 1G, slamming your head into the seat rest if you're not ready for it. In a series of drag races posted online, only the Lamborghini Aventador was able to beat the Tesla in a 0-60 race, though it only took the lead in the 30-60 mph stretch with the Tesla lurching forward to start with.