You’ve got to hand it to the guy, Elon Musk knows how to do an unveiling. Not only does he reveal a cool artic that can do 500 miles on a single charge, but then they open the back up and out comes a secret roadster
0-100 in 4.2 seconds and a 620 mile range….. bloody hell!!

BBC

[video]https://youtu.be/5n9xafjynJA[/video]

Exciting. Was just watching it, thinking ‘how many STWers could find gaping holes in that?’

[video]https://youtu.be/1_Nr0hrjR24[/video]

*edit. Third!

I saw it reported that it’s more aero than a Bugatti Veyron. How can that be? Relative to its size or something?

I would like to see a collaboration with Boston Dynamics.

Breaker one-niner, we need a new slang word for this bobtail rig, over.

I think its brilliant

bitasuite – Member

I saw it reported that it’s more aero than a Bugatti Veyron. How can that be? Relative to its size or something?
Probably because it doesn’t require the same amount of cooling ducts and air intakes as there is no engine to feed & cool.

Woooooooo!!!!!! 🙂

That is one very impressive semi

It’s the opposite of Apple, poor public speaker, but amazing products….

more aero than a Bugatti Veyron

More aero in what sense, downforce or aerodynamically efficient? With hypercars I would have thought the former is a lot more important than the latter.

It’s a shame they couldn’t design something where the driver could see a cyclist beside the cab… it’s got less visibility to the sides and down than a standard hgv.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_coefficient

Cd is proportional to area, so what they’re saying is meter squared to meter squared it’s more aero than the veyron.

CdA is critical, not Cd.

It’s the opposite of Apple, poor public speaker, but amazing products….

Well not really. Apple make amazing products, not sure Tesla do…yet at least. By all accounts the quality of Tesla product is a bit shoddy. My dad took one for a test drive and he wasn’t impressed compared to cheaper BMW/Merc/Audi quality. I’m sure they’re getting better, but for an £80k car they’ve got a way to go. They’re lucky they’re customer base is more interested in the green credentials over the product quality and happy to put up with the lack of quality and multiple warranty returns. I don’t think BMW/Merc/Audi would survive long with Tesla levels of quality.

Quite – any truck with that little glass is shit whatever other attributes it might have. Back to the drawing board Elon.

It’s the opposite of Apple,

They’re not a tax avoidance company who make the occasional phone?

Sorry…. 0-100mph in 4.2 secs??? that’s half a sec faster than a Veyron!

😯

🙂
Fricking awesome.
I guess those who bemoan the visibility have noticed there are no side mirrors either. I wonder what they have instead….
😉

The roadster looks phenomenal! How the hell do you keep something like that quiet in these times?

We took a Tesla taxi from Schiphol to our hotel for the Stones concert. Fecknell it went fast and was almost silent. Impressive indeed.

I saw it reported that it’s more aero than a Bugatti Veyron.

Well it looks smaller, cos perhaps the electric motor is smaller than whatever monster is in the Veyron. But also, they might’ve dialled in less downforce.

I wonder if it’s lighter?

How much does the truck cost?

Impressive stuff but Tesla really do need to sort out their production issues soon rather than mask them with new product announcements. I recently watched “Revenge of the electric car” (Amazon Prime) which has a bit of a behind the scenes at Tesla in their early days, scary how close they were to going pop and it still seems the company is much more focused on R&D than production.

the company is much more focused on R&D than production.

The real money is in the patents, not the products.

It’s a shame they couldn’t design something where the driver could see a cyclist beside the cab… it’s got less visibility to the sides and down than a standard hgv.

It’s got sensors all round, so won’t let the driver hit a cyclist…

I love driving and I love petrol engines (well big noisy ones at least) but I can’t wait for my level 5 autonomous car to take me and some friends to the most remote little country pub in the middle of nowhere then drive us home at 2am without complaining 🙂

bitasuite – Member

I saw it reported that it’s more aero than a Bugatti Veyron. How can that be? Relative to its size or something?

Did they specifically say Veyron? If so it is a fairly old design.

a secret roadster

roadster? Is that as meaningless a term as “shooting brake” has become?

“A roadster (spider or spyder) is an open two-seat car with emphasis on sporting appearance or character. Initially an American term for a two-seat car with no weather protection, usage has spread internationally and has evolved to include two-seat convertibles.”

I’m still waiting for one of these…

Impressive all round

There’s no question that I’d like that little roadster, but the noise is missing which is such a big part of the fun

While I admire what Elon Musk is trying to achieve, I can’t help think that Tesla are trying to run, before they can really walk & spreading themselves too thin.

They should concentrate on getting that Model 30 out in numbers (IMO) before doing all this other stuff.

From the article:

The Model 3 is behind schedule due to factory delays, a situation Mr Musk described recently as “production hell”.

The 46-year-old had been camping at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Reno, Nevada, to oversee battery production for the new cars. However, while the company had predicted it would make 1,500 Model 3 cars in the third quarter of 2017, in reality it only managed 260.

In car production, 1500 cars is peanuts so to only manage 260 cars in 3 months is not great.
By comparison:
from an article I found written in 2014, 1000 Mini’s roll off the production line at Oxford, per day!!
And the Qashqai is produced in Sunderland at a rate of one every 62 seconds.

Tesla should sort production out of the things they have committed to & then move onto other stuff. Or decide they don’t want to do a ‘car for the people’ type vehicle & concentrate on the whizz-bang stuff.

The next Tesla model. Strip felling is going to be back in fashion real soon.

Did they specifically say Veyron?

Just found the article, it’s actually the Chiron. But as wwaswas says, it’s the CdA that’s important not Cd.

As for the roadster, is it really necessary for a car to go from 0-60 in under 2 seconds? Surely this will endanger other road users. It’s all about willy waving rather than being a mode of transport.

As for the roadster, is it really necessary for a car to go from 0-60 in under 2 seconds? Surely this will endanger other road users.

I see where you’re coming from but it’s capability not necessity… it’s perfectly possible to drive a 6s car into people/other cars, or even a 8s or 10s car. Just because it’s got the capability to go really fast doesn’t mean you have to use it or can only go fast.

If you’re going to go down that path then legally enforced maximum rates of acceleration and limited overall speed* are the logical steps, but you try suggesting cars should be lmited to 70mph and see what backlash you get, let alone limiting how quickly you can get there…

*local speed limit radio broadcast by street signs, received by car and automatically applied, why not eh?

is it really necessary for a car to go from 0-60 in under 2 seconds?

We dont really have to go down this avenue again do we?

Both great vehicles but I wouldn’t want either. I like the statement they don’t make in the vids which is – your old internal combustion engine vehicle is just old hat, flthy, slow, noisy and tasteless. People bought dull FWD Audis on the basis of the quattro image and people are starting to take electric cars seriously. Tesla has its part in that, thanks Tesla people.

Tesla levels of acceleration are just pointless, I note one above ventures “dangerous” and I can’t disagree. When i bought the Zoé I thought I’d never use eco mode. In fact the only time I use normal is for overtaking, eco mode is perefct for driving in the flow of traffic without getting dirty looks from the passenger seat. Passengers have adapted to vehicles where noise precedes acceleration, so brace themselves. Floor the throttle in an electric car and it takes off without warning so even humble Zoé levels of go surprise passengers whose heads thump into the head restraints (audibly bcause there’s no other noise).

is it really necessary for a car to go from 0-60 in under 2 seconds?

Of course not.

But:

In a petrol car, you need to make it bigger to make it go faster, and this makes it use up more fuel. So there is a significant downside to a faster car. So we think of fast as fun but naughty, and eco-unfriendly.

In an electric car, the best batteries to use also happen to have really low internal resistance which means they can comfortably deliver huge amounts of power, and if this only for a short time there’s no downside. So to make an electric car all you need is to make the wires thicker and off you go.

It’s a good thing that they have done this, because the petrolhead and motoring world now thinks they are awesome, which has helped the credibility no end. I can’t imagine the Top Gear fan-sphere would get excited about a car with a 300 mile range that did 0-60 in ten seconds. It’s a statement, and a marketing ploy – and it seems to have worked pretty well.

Edukator – Reformed Troll

Tesla levels of acceleration are just pointless, I note one above ventures “dangerous” and I can’t disagree. …… Floor the throttle in an electric car and it takes off without warning so even humble Zoé levels of go surprise passengers whose heads thump into the head restraints (audibly bcause there’s no other noise).

I think you missed a perfectly good opportunity to tell us about your long and successful racing career along with blurry photo and quote from Bob Pipesmoke, senior assistant editor of British Hillclimb & Autocross monthly 😉

*local speed limit radio broadcast by street signs, received by car and automatically applied, why not eh?

Pretty sure they’ve trialled that in Sweden, as soon as you enter a 30 etc, your speed is capped.

In an electric car, the best batteries to use also happen to have really low internal resistance which means they can comfortably deliver huge amounts of power, and if this only for a short time there’s no downside. So to make an electric car all you need is to make the wires thicker and off you go

The electric car’s “killer app”.

Now if we could just fix the charging problem.

Erm, except leadfooted customers in Teslas are finding that their batteries are degrading after only a few months use, heavy discharge rates = rapid degradation. Especially noticable in Ludicrous/bellend mode.

Much the same as heavy charging loads = rapid degradation.

ragging it = increased wear and reduced life, whoddathunkit?

Pretty sure they’ve trialled that in Sweden, as soon as you enter a 30 etc, your speed is capped.

oh? not heard about that one, off to google…ta