I made a presumption there as I stated, but I can't see how it will cover 0-250+ on a single gear, can you? But anyway, battery weight is my primary concern for its handling prowess compared to other serious supercars.
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Concerns about size and price of new Roadster
- Thread starter Vern Padgett
- Start date
I made a presumption there as I stated, but I can't see how it will cover 0-250+ on a single gear, can you? But anyway, battery weight is my primary concern for its handling prowess compared to other serious supercars.
I'm not convinced about that. While the 200 kWh battery will provide more peak power, it's going to be nearly twice as heavy as an equivalent 100 kWh battery, adding literally hundreds of kilos to the total weight. We know that a current Model S with a 100kWh battery can already achieve 0-60 in 2.3 seconds, so a lighter Roadster with a more advanced 100 kWh battery should be capable of bringing that down to around 2 sec or less. I actually think it's the 250 mph top speed that requires the 200 kWh battery, not low speed acceleration. Weight is not important for max speed on a level road. Top speed is all about power and aero efficiency.
My instinct (with an F1 chassis engineering background) is that they have sacrificed handling to hit the headline straight line performance figures and range, which I can understand for publicity. But this is going to be one heavy beast and there's no way to hide that when going round corners. Dropping to a 100 kWh or even smaller battery and saving many hundreds of kilos in the process will make it a far more compelling car to drive in the real world, unless you only ever take it to drag strips.
I’m not an EV drivetrain engineer, so I can’t say. I was only emphasizing out that we should not assume that the new Roadster will have a 2-speed gearbox for the rear wheels, and I note that you did use the words “That’s presuming...”.
At this point we don’t know...
I am glad to see a post from someone with your type of background that contributes real knowledge to this very interesting discussion. I too would like to see a version of the new Roadster with something like a 100kWh pack; it would likely still have extremely impressive acceleration, better handling, and still have a top speed far above anything one can legally achieve on American highways or almost any highway anywhere. While a pack that size would probably impose a limit on how many track laps the car could do, most potential buyers don’t care about that and would never track the car anyway. For those that do care they could opt for the 200kW battery.
Come on Elon, make a Roadster that more people can afford and that would be more suitable for public roads! I understand the “supercar smack down” goal of the new Roadster, but a less costly 100kWh Roadster would also make a statement because it could show the 911 crowd how an EV can easily be a superior vehicle on public roads.
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Chickenlittle
Banned
Like telling bugotti to sell an affordable car....would destroy brand. People buy it because most people can’t they are not all race car professionals. Need to keep it as an exclusive car. The tesla needs to have an exclusive car and the masses can drive a model 3
100 kWh battery (in as lightweight a package as the prevailing tech can make it) seems like a good compromise to me. Even with that I would expect it to be still significantly heavier than a comparable supercar ICE or hybrid drivetrain. Weight is the real issue for EVs to overcome when competing against other supercars. It was interesting reading a recent interview with the Porsche Technical Director who admitted that they deliberately chose to make their first full EV a 4-door Grand Tourer along the lines of the Panamera rather than a more focused 911 or Cayman sized alternative. They were concerned about the weight penalty of an EV drivetrain hurting the handling too much in a full-on sports car. But they were more than happy with the weight compromise in a larger more relaxed driving GT car. I think the same could be said for the Tesla Model S. It works perfectly well as a big luxury sedan playing to the inherent strengths of electric power, but it would be much less convincing as a serious sports car unless it could somehow be made hundreds of kilos lighter. That's my worry about the new Roadster with its massive 200 kWh battery. Straight line speed is obviously phenomenal (and that may be more than enough for many people), but can it cut it as a true all-round sportscar on real roads with corners? Can it beat any track lap records? Personally I think it will need a smaller battery to have any real chance of upsetting the best efforts of McLaren, Porsche, Ferrari etc. So I await the driving reviews with much interest.
I reserved but hope it will fit my 6'1" frame and wide shoulders. With the original Roadster I was bumping against my equally sized friend in the passenger seat, and the door, and it was not comfortable for a daily or distance driver for me.
I'm going to make a bold prediction: Tesla will do just that. Eventually.
Tesla is a new company. It is only building three car models at present, and one of those is just getting started and has yet to clear the early-production snags and bottlenecks. So it has two models going, and a third just coming on line. A supercar that can beat any other car on the road in at least one metric (zero to sixty) will give Tesla important bragging rights. An affordable Roadster for non-racing non-millionaire sports-car enthusiasts is a lower priority for a company whose ultimate goal is for everyone to switch from gas to electric. The (old) Roadster is still an incredible, massively-fun sports car, and as the Model 3 rolls out there will be more of these on the used-car market. I'm envious that a PxxD Model S can beat my Roadster off the line, but the fact is that the Roadster is still everything that a reasonable sports-car enthusiast could want.
The urgency for a new Roadster (except for the bragging rights to a supercar) just isn't there. Tesla needs to get the Model 3 going, and perhaps fill some more niches before going back to the market niche filled by the (old) Roadster. Once Model 3 production is going full-bore, and the Semi production is up and running, and maybe a Civic-size car, and perhaps superchargers on secondary roads, not just major freeways, and perhaps one or two others that I can't think of yet, then, I predict, Tesla will build another Roadster to fill the niche of the old Roadster but with their latest tech and better performance.
They're just getting started. We have to be patient.
Selling a 100kWh $100K version of the new Roadster would “destroy brand”? I don’t think so. It might mean Tesla sells somewhat fewer 200kW $250K Roadsters. But that wouldn’t be a big problem. The new Roadster is Elon’s statement that an EV can be better than million dollar plus supercars. Okay, sell a few thousand, point made. Then make a version that more people can afford. The Tesla brand will be just fine.
I suspect dropping he pack size down in half and/or downsizing the massive motors would require retuning of the chasis and production process. It may happen but it's probably years after the release of the new Roadster.
Tesla still has the Model Y crossover and hopefully a Tesla truck in the pipeline. Those two should be a priority from a mass market perspective (after the 3), but they need another factory and another gigafactory for all that to happen. So much to do, so little time and capital to do so.
Tesla still has the Model Y crossover and hopefully a Tesla truck in the pipeline. Those two should be a priority from a mass market perspective (after the 3), but they need another factory and another gigafactory for all that to happen. So much to do, so little time and capital to do so.
Agreed, which is one of the reasons why I was so shocked to see the new Roadster roll out of the rear of the Semi at the unveil. I really thought a new Roadster was at least 5 years off. It’s a niche market car.
Agreed, except I think Tesla can readily raise capital as needed.
Shock-On-T
⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️
Model 3 sounds perfect for you.
I agree about not really needing to go super fast, but that’s not the market the Roadster is aimed at.
Xenoilphobe
Well-Known Member
I would have more impressed if a 200kWh truck rolled out the back to smoke the Ford Raptor/F150. Approximately 2 millions trucks are sold in the US per year
Top 11 Best-Selling Pickup Trucks In America – September 2017 -
Top 11 Best-Selling Pickup Trucks In America – September 2017 -
I would have thought downsizing the battery would be relatively easy. The hardest part would be marketing, as a 500 kg lighter Roadster would smoke the 200 kWh version around any track and handle much better on the road. It might have to make do with perhaps a 2 sec 0-60, sub 200 mph top speed and 300 mile range, but those figures will not put many people off it.
I still think Musk has pushed it too far to grab headline straight line performance stats at the expense of building the best driving EV supercar possible. I fully understand why, but it's still a bit of a shame if there is no lightweight option available. But I guess we will see in due course.
ThosEM
Space Weatherman
Well, I did't say how wide my spouse and I are but we found that we felt jammed in sideways like sardines. I admit the length dimensions are adequate.
I agree that the Roadster offers very little width in the cockpit. Two average size American adults definitely fills it up, and if you aren’t used to small cars it can feel almost claustrophobic to some people.
But I like it.
Moderator note: About half the posts in this thread (including several of my own) were moved to a new thread in the EV Conversions forum, because that is the topic that was being discussed.
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