darelldd is going to be SO envious!

I took the top off today for the first time. Takes just a couple of minutes. That was nice. The weather forecast suggests I may be able to leave it off for a while.

 

Their original plan was to build 2,500 Roadsters and then switch to the Model S. They are on track with that plan. They will discontinue making the Roadster and mid-2012 they expect to deliver the first of the Signature series Model S (300 mile range and ALL the options, probably for a whopping $80,000 or $90,000).

After the Model S I think there's talk of a crossover called the Model X, and eventually an affordable family sedan.

At some point they will build Roadsters again, but on a different frame, since their contract with Lotus for frames ends soon. And probably a whole new design, making mine a rare car.

The Roadster was always a car to break into a tough market. It was never Tesla's long-term plan. That is, they never intended to be an exotic-car maker. They built an exotic car to get a start and eventually grow into a major auto maker. And it is one smooth car, with the highest power to noise ratio on the streets.

 

Removing the roof is easy. I have the soft top and it's off right now. I may have to put it on this morning to drive out to the farm where they now have the first beets, but I'll be taking it off again for an afternoon drive out in the country. Takes about 2 minutes.

I will not oil the inside. I do not have a human-size shoehorn or a crane. I will give rides to anyone who wants. Any excuse to drive my new toy.

 

Went out for a drive in the country today on a rural highway (Route 27, headed south from Spokane) I drove a total of 104 miles. The Roadster gives two "estimated range" figures: Ideal range, which supposes that you drive like a sane person; and an estimate based on your driving style the previous 30 or 40 miles.

Starting out having charged in standard mode (charge to 90%, limit discharge to 10%) my "ideal range" is 185 miles. (It's 245 if you charge in Range mode, which charges to 100% and allows complete, or near complete discharge, with the warning that it's bad for battery life.)

After driving 104 miles my "ideal range" remaining was 70 miles. I was driving with the top off, between 55 and 62 mph, accelerating up the occasional hill, passing the occasional car with frightening bursts of speed, etc. My range remaining based on driving style was 60 miles. So an easy 160 miles driving hard, but not quite freeway speed limit, and that would still leave a buffer because you can always switch to range mode and use that bottom 10%, which would be around 18 miles driving moderately.

It's been a sunny day here, but not too hot, making for a beautiful drive in the country.

The car is set to charge at midnight, so tomorrow I'll report on how many electrons it took.

 

Done. Thanks for the reminder, Rene.

 

Oops. I had to correct the section about the Prius. It's not for trips over 40 miles any more.

 

Where are you located, Sage?

 

"Annie" (because it was an orphan) started charging on the timer at midnight. At 4:50 a.m. when I woke up, it had finished. So it took some amount less than 5 hours to recharge after 104 miles of driving. (I've been told a discharge to 10%, which is the limit in Standard mode, and should be about 170 miles, will take six hours to recharge to 90%, also the limit in Standard mode.) It took 35 kWh. That of course includes the energy it took to run the compressor and pumps for the battery cooling system (which BTW is quite loud). I count that because it's part of the car's overall energy usage, analogous to a stinker's tank-to-wheels FE. So my cost to drive it remains 2 cents per mile, as with the Xebra, which has a less efficient drive train, but is lighter and does not run a cooling system. This is what I expected.

At 3.75 per gallon, which I think is the typical price for gas where I live, and 50 mpg, which is what I get in the Prius on the highway, the Prius costs 7 1/2 cents per mile to drive. Toyota, eat my dust!

If one gallon of gas contains 40 kWh of energy (very quick google search) then the Prius goes 50 miles on 40 kWh or 1.25 miles per kWh. which is 2.4 times as much energy as the Roadster. IOW, the Roadster is 2.4 times more efficient than a Prius. All while driving considerably harder. Only a bicycle is more efficient.

A full charge to 100% from dead empty (driving and charging in Range mode) is supposed to take 8 hours using my charging connector (240 volts on a 50 amp circuit drawing 40 amps). So, a little more than twice the charging rate of the Leaf using Nissan's L2 charging system.

 

Thanks for the correction on kWh/gallon. I just glanced at some web page.

In that case, a 5-year-old Civic or Corolla beats a Prius hands down. I was, indeed, talking about fuel cost at the point of consumer purchase per mile. Of course, gasoline is subsidized by all sorts of give-aways to Big Oil, but since those are hard to calculate, I compare pump-to-wheels for a stinker with plug-to-wheels for an EV. So the Prius is half as efficient, and at Spokane prices costs 7 1/2 times as much to put fuel in.

We've been brought up to think that more power means less efficiency, but electric motors do not follow that rule.

Time to go to my Weight Watcher's meeting. I've lost 15 pounds since February, and I've been losing 1/2 pound per week for the last month and a half. (Slower as I get closer to my goal, as is to be expected.)