New Powertrain Increases Tesla Electric Roadster Range to 244 Miles and Boosts Torque
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 09.12.08
1 Gear is All You Need
Tesla Motors, makers of the much talked about Tesla Electric Roadster, has just announced that it has selected BorgWarner to produce the new Roadster 1-speed transmission (ratio of 8.2752:1, can go up to 14,000 RPM).
More Powerful and Efficient
The updated version 1.5 powertrain, which also includes a more powerful inverter and an enhanced motor design, will produce 30% more torque (to 280 foot-pounds) while also increasing the EPA rated range of the electric car by 10% to 244 miles (393 kilometers), up from 221 miles (255 klicks). The ΒΌ mile time for the car is now in the 12.9 second range.
But what happens to those lucky few who have Tesla Roadsters with the old powertrain?
I guess that when you pay that much for a car, it better come with good service. Tesla says: "Customers who own Roadsters with the interim transmission can have their powertrain upgraded free of charge."
Production Slowly Ramping Up
So far Tesla has only delivered 27 Roadsters (including Martin Eberhard, who blogged and took pictures of it), but things are speeding up.
"Tesla Motors starts production of 10 new Roadsters each week. Customers typically take delivery four to six weeks after production begins. The company expects production starts to ramp up to at least 20 vehicles per week within a few months and 40 per week by early 2009."
We hope that they'll be able to keep scaling production, but also that work on the Tesla Model S (a 4-door electric sedan that should cost about half of what the Roadster costs) will go well.
Via Tesla Motors, Tesla Blog
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It's awesome how electric cars tend to get more efficient as they get more powerful.
***DROOL****
Oh man, I would love to own a Tesla.
Oh, I'll just throw my old transmission away, along with all the oil in it, and buy a new one so that I am faster and more bitchin'. So green ... Oh, so it goes a little farther on a charge. If I actually use my tesla until it runs out of electricity just as I coast into my garage, I am going to save enough energy to power my new upgraded iPod that does the same thing my last one did.
I think replacing a transmission at the beginning of the cars service life is probably best. That way the savings are spread out as long as possible. I'm sure the old ones are worth a lot on the recylcing market, especially if Tesla recycles them in bulk. That way if anyone wants the specialty alloys, they're available in quantity.
And, reallly, Tesla is more an experimental project than a production car. The technical knowhow derived from the first production run will be extremely valuable later on, even if its a failure. The entire project is a valuable testbed.
Another green factor justifying the standardization of the transmission is the streamlining of aftermarket servicing. After all, if there's two different transmissions, there's two different service procedures and parts inventories.
"Oh, I'll just throw my old transmission away, along with all the oil in it, and buy a new one so that I am faster and more bitchin'. So green ..."
Um, they delivered 27 cars... it totally makes sense not to keep just 27 cars with old transmissions, not to mention that people paid for the best transmission. And over the life of the car, it's going to save a lot of power.
Oy Vey. The idiot factor here with Anon-E-Mouse is massive. You dolt, the first gen tranny was a temp tranny all along. Prospective owners were given the choice to take delivery with the temp, or just wait, all 27 or so of them.
Go back under your rock of idiocy, we're quite through with you, thanks.
The anonymous poster has a point. It is exactly the "use and throw away without a second thought" mentality that has gotten us in this mess. People immediately jump on something new, especially when marketing departments, reviewers, magazine editors do a good job of "persuading" them that they need said product.
That being said, I do feel that it is a good idea to install the new transmission. From day one they KNEW that this was going to happen though, and instead of delaying the start of production, they put out an unfinished product that they openly said was going to have to be fixed at a later date. That is something that should be left to the likes of Microsoft. Shame on Tesla for following the lead of software companies when dealing with physical resource-using products.
"It's awesome how electric cars tend to get more efficient as they get more powerful. "
uhhh - If you hold the powertrain loss constant and increase the power from the source, the efficiency increases. This is true for any power generation and transmission, be it gas, electric, diesel, steam, nuclear/steam, coal, etc.
@Sirerdrick, Willy Bio wrote:
"[...]Prospective owners were given the choice to take delivery with the temp [...] all 27 or so of them.[...]"
I think that if you take the base price plus the fuel costs, that the Tesla is actually competitive with the Hummer
2009 HUMMER H2 MSRP: $60,900. & $10,000. year fuel
2009 Tesla price $109,000. & $1,000 year fuel.
We see a lot of Hummer's driving around with one person in them, so the Tesla is not as much out of reach as many think.
I still want to see the new more affordable models being made available soon.
Ahh yes.. single speed transmision, with better efficiency and higher RPM... sounds JUST LIKE the Honda Clarity fuel cell car!
Acceleration starved ego's got in the way of elegant Honda-like engineering.
"Oh, I'll just throw my old transmission away, along with all the oil in it, and buy a new one so that I am faster and more bitchin'. So green ... "
Whoa there doctor sarcastinstien.
Tesla already has a process in place to deal with there batteries at end of life, I would be dumbfounded if they did not have a similary process in place for the transmission. The auto industry cannot afford to take part in the through away culture because these are precision machine components assembled by technicians. Much higher cost, lower volume and lower profit margin that an iPod. Honda referbs most components that are replaced by dealers and resells them.
I know, lets come down all the the people who replaced there plastic water bottles with Al ones. Or people who put in CFLs before their edison bulbs failed.
The first performance electric car manufactured by Tesla Motors, the high-performance, zero-emissions Tesla Roadster, was unveiled before a throng of well-wishers, car buffs, and potential customers recently during Tesla Motors's "Signature One Hundred" event at Barker Hangar.