Top Gear Does Tesla

Time for my weekly Tesla Roadster post (not quite). This time it's about a story run by the whacky guys on the original (and best) Top Gear. The shows wordsmith Jeremy Clarkson got his hands on not one, but two of these zippy zappers from the valley of silicon and thrashed the crap out of them (as he does).

I don't want to ruin the surprise ending for you but let's just say that he's finally found a car that runs on electrons he'd consider buying thus making him a "volt head" instead of a "petrol head". The Tesla manages to do quite an impressive run around the test track with The Stig at the wheel but the driving range of the car was markedly different to the official Tesla figures.

Click onwards for the video and thanks to AutoBlogGreen for the tip.

100th Telsa Roadster Being Delivered Today

The Tesla Roadster, the poster child of clean and fun driving, has reached another milestone in its young life as today the 100th model is being delivered to a "special customer".

The fully electric sports car made by US-based Telsa Motors from a Lotus-built body continues to be the number one reason to get away from burning old dinosaurs for propulsion, if you have the cash, but it has some hot competition biting at its heels.

No idea who is getting the 100th Roadster but Autoblog Green has a few ideas.

Tesla Completes Updated Drivertrain For Roadster

My favourite little EV-that-could looks like it'll finally be getting the drivetrain it was supposed to be originally released with.

Tesla announced that they have completed "Drivetrain 1.5" which includes an upgraded electric motor and swapping the original two-speed automatic transmission for a Borg Warner-sourced one speed. This means the Tesla Roadster's instant torque will go from 155.5 Nm (211 lb-ft) to a relatively huge 206 Nm (280 lb-ft) while also improving its range by 10% to a shockingly impressive 244 miles. That's 392.6 kms of uninterrupted, fossil fuel-free fun.

Drivetrain 1.5 also means Tesla can get serious with the output of these little rockets with them producing 10 Roadsters per week and up to 40 per week by next March.

There's also good news for the 38 lucky people who already own a Roadster as Tesla will be keeping its promise to retrofit those models with the new drivetrain.

More info and pics over at AutoblogGreen.

Lightning GT, An EV For The Aston Martin Lovers

You may have heard that at the British International MotorShow another performance EV was announced, the Lightning GT. With a range of between 150 and 180 miles per charge and a 0-100 time of "under 4 seconds" this Aston Martin-esque car is squarely set to compete with the Tesla Roadster.

While the Tesla Roadster looks more like a Lotus this new entrant has taken design cues from Aston Martin setting itself up for the upper class.

More photos and video of the enveiling over at Autoblog Green.

Who Rose The Electric Car From The Dead?

Chris Paine, the director of the controversial documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" is back again with a sequel and this time the electric car wins!

Autoblog Green is reporting that Chris has tentatively scheduled this revenge film for a 2009 release and titled it "Revenge of the Electric Car". Interestingly there's no mention of it (yet) on IMDb.

I guess with the Telsa Roadster, Chevy Volt and others all making big noises in the media it makes sense to bring the topic up again.

Telsa Roadster #4 Spotted

The fourth Tesla Roadster to roll off the production line (if you can call it that) has been spotted in the wild. Apparently this one has been doing the marketing rounds and is now being delivered to its owner. I hope he/she got a discount for having their $100K baby paraded around and sat in by various people.