Tesla EV Sets New Record, Travelling 313 Miles on a Single Charge
Co-drivers Simon Hackett and Emilis Prelgauska pose with the Roadster after breaking the record. A map of their trip in Central Australia appears in the background. (image: teslamotors.com)
The Tesla Roadster, a sexy cross between a Prius and a Ferrari, is the fastest electric vehicle on the market. And after setting the world distance record at this year’s Global Green Challenge, it’s also the most efficient. As TreeHugger.com reported this week, Simon Hackett and co-driver Emilis Prelgauska drove 313 miles (501 km) on a single charge, beating the previous record—set by another Tesla during the Rallye Monte Carlo d’Energies Alternatives—by over 70 miles.
If you haven’t seen a Tesla Roadster, it looks like something James Bond would drive if he gave up spying and moved to Silicon Valley. The standard Roadster can hit 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, which means that it can keep pace with a Porsche 911 Carrera; it also runs on a 53 kWh lithium-ion battery, which means that when the other guy is paying 50 bucks to fill up his Porsche, you can just plug your Tesla in at home. Then again, the Roadster goes for $100,000, so if you drive one, you’re probably not worried about scrimping on gas.
The Tesla’s new record at the Global Green Challenge demonstrates that an electric vehicle can in fact travel long distances on a single charge (and do so in style). To get the most out of the car’s battery, Hackett and Prelgauska kept the Roadster’s speed at around 35 mph—which seems a shame, given the Tesla’s high-performance capability. But then again, the drivers weren’t going for a land-speed record.
Kristy Kershaw says: says:
This is a great step in the right direction. It is also a slight blow to Palin’s argument that electric cars could not be a viable option in places like Alaska. [http://www.heatingoil.com/blog/palin-offers-new-and-old-arguments-in-support-of-increased-domestric-drilling1030/] Not that anyone would want to drive across Alaska at 35 mph, but it does point to the fact that such a reality (in which electric cars could cover long distances at high speeds) may soon come to pass.