Test Tesla Roadster 3.0 Goes ~340 Miles On Only 1 Charge
One of the things many of us love about Tesla is that it has a heart. More specifically, Elon Musk has a heart, and chooses to use it more than the greedy devil on his shoulder when it comes to running Tesla. (I’m sure other important people at Tesla, like JB Straubel, have hearts too, but Elon is obviously the one with the most power, so every decision ends on his word.) Of course, “being good” has also turned out to be good business sense for Tesla, and the cynical among us would like to make us believe that everything Elon and Tesla do is actually aimed towards making money, but I’m definitely not that cynical and think I’ve seen enough from Elon to know otherwise. (Also, recall that he assumed there was a ~10% of Tesla succeeding, and was mostly putting his money and time into Tesla in order to try to help the world.) Anyhow, one of those good things Tesla is doing is continuing to improve the Tesla Roadster for its early adopters. The latest news on that is in this EV Obsession repost about Tesla Roadster 3.0:
One of the questions that came up on Tesla’s recent quarterly conference call was why Tesla was upgrading the Tesla Roadster. Elon Musk’s answer was simple: that they had an obligation to those early adopters. Tesla said it would do it, and it’s doing it. No doubt, many at Tesla are hugely grateful for what those early adopters provided.
Just a couple of days later, a new post popped onto the Tesla blog, “Roadster Road Trip Update: San Jose to Los Angeles on a Single Charge.”
Importantly, to cut off any potential speculation, Tesla highlights right at the beginning that Tesla 3.0 improvements are not things that will trickle into the Model S or other models, but have actually improvements that come from what Tesla has learned from the Model S. “No new Model S battery pack or major range upgrade is expected in the near term,” Tesla states.
It then proceeds to concisely summarize a trip from San Jose to Los Angeles that a Tesla Roadster with the 3.0 package made on a single charge. The 3.0 package includes “enhancements in battery cell technology, aerodynamics, and rolling resistance,” all together boosting the Roadster’s range by ~40–50%.
The summary of this test drive in a Tesla Roadster 3.0 prototype is as follows:
For our first test outing, we evaluated the prototype package on a historic route down the I-5 from our first Tesla store in San Jose to the Santa Monica Pier (via the Tesla Store on the 3rd Street Promenade), a distance of approximately 340 miles.
The trip was smooth, with no disruptions. On the highway, we set cruise control to stay right around the speed limit. We turned on the heater for a 40-minute stretch going over the Grapevine. And less than six hours from leaving San Jose, we pulled into the Santa Monica Pier, with 20 miles remaining in the battery pack.
I’m sure many Roadster owners will appreciate this upgrade. 😀
Image Credit: Tesla Motors
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