Tesla torque

THE Channel Islands' first Tesla will hit the road soon... the Jersey road, that is. At least we got to see and try it here first, albeit briefly because of Condor's problems of Wednesday last week.

The electric supercar was in the island 'in response to genuine sales enquiries' from people considering spending £70-odd thousand on a Roadster – the UK price is just under £88K.

Sadly the ferry disruption meant that two of the local prospective owners missed out on their drives although, despite the late arrival, UK sales manager Gian Avignone and EU sales adviser Daniel Davey did manage to get five behind the wheel.

And – after dark – I was able to squeeze in a brief spin instead of the test drive that had been planned for noon.

Tesla are keen to put bums on their seats.

'The single most important thing we can do is put someone in the driving seat,' said Mr Avignone.

That 'word of informed mouth' has seen just short of 2,000 Roadsters sold in 31 countries.

The first UK showroom opened just over two years ago in Knightsbridge, but they had not visited the islands earlier 'because we haven't had the bandwidth before'.

Well now they have, although Roadster production is to cease some time next year.

'We only ever intended a limited production, which will help keep the Roadster's value,' said Mr Davey.

And talking of finances, the Tesla is accessible to a lot of people, despite a UK price tag of close to £90,000.

'Between 1,500 and 3,500 cars a year are sold in the UK priced at £150,000-plus,' Mr Avignone pointed out.

'The chassis is built to our specification by Lotus using Lotus patents,' he said.

The screen and roll bar are shared with the Lotus but the carbon fibre bodywork is bespoke Tesla and eight inches longer and three inches wider than its Lotus cousin.

Overall parts commonality is only around 6%.

And the sill is lower, making access easier, as I found to my relief.

Getting going is simply a case of flicking a key and hitting the D button and pressing the gas(?) pedal.

At local speeds – before tyre roar really kicks in – it is all but silent.

Put the pedal anywhere remotely near the metal and the acceleration is awesome and, of course, with a single speed transmission, completely seamless.

They say 60mph comes up in under four seconds and it feels like it.

And of course traction is superb with that 450kg battery pack mounted behind the cockpit.

As far as I could tell – the Tesla seemed to inspire some pretty stupid driving on the part of other road users but I refused to join in – the handling is pretty neutral.

Compared with the acceleration, top speed is a tad modest at 125mph.

That's because of the single gear.

At top speed the motor is running at 14,000rpm, well above its maximum torque which, with electrics, arrives instantly from standstill.

It's that massive torque output that makes it difficult to get a multispeed transmission that will mate up with an electric motor.

But they are on the way.

The Roadster's suspension seemed well sorted – a bit softer than the Elise – something that should go down well with Tesla owners, not that there is any such thing as a typical Tesla owner.

Teslas have been sold to replace Porsches, to join Diablos and Ferraris in supercar garages and even to replace a veteran Fiesta as someone's first new car.

So, supercar acceleration certainly and pretty impressive-looking brakes.

Shame you won't really need them.

Lift off the pedal and the retardation of the regenerative braking is enough to make the brake pedal necessary only for coming to a complete halt.

The flow of power reverses and the motor turns generator to top up the battery.

It's easy to overdo regeneration to the point where the car decelerates too sharply on lift-off, while on the other hand too little regen and range is limited.

Tesla seem to have struck a fine balance that won't ever unsettle the car but which will allow a decent driver to use the anchors only when coming to a complete halt and then only from a few mph.

All this allows Tesla to claim, confidently, 211 miles of mixed driving on a charge.

'Range is not an issue,' asserts Mr Avignone, pointing to the 6,831 water-cooled lithium-ion cell power pack.

Tesla and Top Gear have gone to law over, inter alia, claims that the Tesla was good for only 55 miles on a charge.

That would seem to have been based on permanent test track driving with Stig at the wheel.

'Range is not an issue. However you drive it on the road, you would get more than 100 miles on a charge,' said Mr Avignone.

The first production cars are now up to three and a half years old and 'showing that the packs will comfortably achieve 100,000 miles'.

After that there will eventually be some degradation, leading to range reducing by up to 30%, 'although some of the early engineering cars are up to 200,000 miles'.

'And nothing the owner can do will damage the pack.'

Recharging time? It could be as little as two hours at 70 amps but given the range, most users will simply spend a few seconds plugging them into a three-pin overnight.

But what about the eventual replacement cost?

That will set you back £9,400 at the moment.

Mr Avignone, who came to Tesla from a sports car and motor sports background, put it into context.

'I have put replacement engines in cars of comparable performance that cost a lot more than £9,400 and at a lower mileage.

And of course should that investment ever become necessary, it will have been considerably offset by the miserly fuel costs and other running costs.

'The motor will last 800,000 miles with no servicing.' And pads and discs last four times as long.

Tesla's need just an annual check and software upgrade, carried out by a travelling service team for those owners who do not live near one of their centres.

The next advance in battery technology is four years away – it's a change in cell chemistry that should increase range by 25% – so it's good to know the roadster has been futureproofed.

'The next-generation powerpack will bolt straight in.' Good to know should your original one need replacing.

And the future?

Roadster is just the start – a car to show sceptics that there's more to electrics than milk floats and G-Wizs.

And it's already made its mark on major players who once thought pure electric cars could not work – until they saw that a little California start-up had done it.

GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz said that Tesla had helped get the green light for the Chevy Volt.

There's much more to come from Tesla, which was co-founded and significantly funded by PayPal co-founder billionaire Elon Musk. We should soon see the Model S, which will have a range of 300 miles on a charge.

And it will be taking advantage of 'the exciting packaging possible with electrics'.

The full five-seater sits somewhere between BMW 5- and 7-Series in size and has a huge boot both fore and aft.

'We will be having that car on the road in 2012.'

Tesla is tooling up the 5.5m. sq. ft Nummi car plant in Fremont, CA, formerly used by Toyota and GM, and looking to produce 20,000 vehicles a year.

Then we should see an SUV with 8,400Nm of torque – that should tow a house.

But closer to the present and closer to home, the Tesla team is looking to return to the Channel Islands in the second week of October.

By then the Channel Islands' first Tesla owner – a petrolhead – will have his car.

Lucky beggar.