"IT'S
WICKED
FUN
TO DRIVE."
Think an electric car can't be an
honest-to-goodness, rubber-burning, pulse-quickening,
pedal-to-the-metal beast on the highway? The Tesla Roadster is here
to change your mind - and maybe change the way the auto industry
works in the process. Illustration by
ILOVEDUST.
The Tesla Roadster looks like and
acts very much in accordance with its pedigree, part Lotus
and part Silicon Valley wild child. It races from zero to 60
in four seconds and can reach a curve-hugging top speed of
over 130 mph. There's just one thing missing: the keening
roar of exhaust escaping a gas combustion engine.
That's because the Tesla is the first automobile to marry sports
car performance with a silent, instantly responsive, electric power
train. And if you think of an electric car as a gussied-up boxy
golf cart, think again. The Tesla Roadster is as cool and
mind-bending as it is clean and green.
Tesla Motors, the company that created the Roadster, is the
brainchild of three Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Martin Eberhard,
Marc Tarpenning, and Elon Musk, who have turned the idea of the
electric car - and of building an automotive company - on its head,
much the way Apple once jolted the computer business.
"We have a grand vision; it's an ambitious vision," says Darryl
Siry, Tesla's vice president of sales, marketing, and service, and
someone who qualifies as a start-up long-timer; he had four months
on the job when we spoke.
Audacious is the word Eberhard, Tesla's
chief executive officer, uses often to describe the company's
ambitions. Eberhard, who has been a car nut ever since he was a
teen in Kansas, conceived the idea of using lithium-ion cells (like
the ones in laptops) as batteries. "We intend to become a real car
company, the next great American car company," he says. "We can't
do it in two years. We can't do it in five years. But that's our
goal over time."
So far, the reviews of the $100,000 Roadster are glowing.
Time named it one of the Best
Transportation Inventions of 2006. PC
Magazine called it a "dream car." And Forbes named it one of the best cars of 2006, even
though it wasn't yet on the road.
"Tesla is remarkable in a number of ways," says Chelsea Sexton, a
marketing expert and the executive director of Plug In America, a
coalition that advocates plug-in vehicles. "The product is one. The
company is another. It's definitely the best-equipped small company
I've seen make a go at this. Ever. The Tesla Roadster dispels every
golf-cart myth [about electric cars] out there. It's wicked fun to
drive."
Over the past year, Tesla has built a buzz about its plans, and
especially about its snug two-seat sports car. This is not your
neighbor's Prius. The all-electric car has an extruded-aluminum
chassis pioneered by Lotus, and it will go for about 200 miles
before needing a recharge. Siry says he's glad environmentalism has
gone mainstream, but Tesla, based just north of Palo Alto,
California, is not banking on the greens.
"The idea the company was founded on was that you could have a
highly efficient car without the trade-offs on performance,
styling, and drivability," Siry says. "We're not depending on a
surge in environmental awareness and global warming. We said we
were going to build a car so beautiful, that handles so well, and
that's so quick that people are going to buy it even if they're not
passionate about the environment."
By early this summer, almost 600 people, including George Clooney,
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Will.i.am of the
Black Eyed Peas, had plunked down $50,000 deposits to get one of
the first Tesla Roadsters, even before the car had gone through its
final safety tests. Those who ordered first are expected to get
their cars this fall. Tesla, which will not initially sell to auto
dealers, plans to open its first dedicated sales center later this
year.