Tesla Motors and it’s flagship car, the Tesla Roadster, both bear the name of Nikola Tesla. As a Gadget Addict, you may know who Tesla was, but it’s possible you don’t. He’s the guy who invented Alternating Current (that stuff that comes from those wall-outlets to power all your stuff). Nikola Tesla also held a couple hundred patents, invented the first remotely controlled devices, hung with Mark Twain and was pretty sure he could broadcast electricity to everyone around the world for free. Sadly, while that last bit never came to pass, the type of electricity he invented would allow the twentieth century to unfold the way it did.
Thanks to Telsa’s main competitor for AC being Thomas Edison (who believed DC was the way to go) most folks tend to never hear about Tesla in the first place. People point to the rock band from the 1980s with the same name and now they have Tesla Motors to be confused about. So, why name a car company after a guy who’s barely known for the invention of the most commonly used form of electricity?
It’s that last word that is the key…
The Tesla Roadster is an electric car. Most believe that the no sports car can be very fast, but according to the official site, TeslaMotors.com, the TR can go from zero to sixty in 3.9 seconds. Not too shabby, huh?
The site also claims that it can go 220 miles on a single charge, which apparently works out, in cost, to just 2¢ per mile and the equivalent mileage of 135 miles-per-gallon. Yeah, that’s about five times any other sports car. It’s also a gorgeous vehicle, looking like a bit like the Ferrari Magnum PI drove.
While the green aspects of the car are appealing, it’s not immediately obvious on their website just how energy efficient the process of making the thing is. The site claims that it’s one-tenth as polluting as other sports cars and twice as efficient as popular hybrids, which sure sounds nice. However, no mention is given to how polluting the Tesla Roadster production process is, nor does it explain how polluting it is to charge that thing every night is. After all, the electricity from your wall socket comes from somewhere. Even Nikola Tesla knew that.
If your electricity comes from a coal plant, you might be doing much more damage to the environment than you think.
Ah, there’s always a catch with gadgets of all sizes aren’t there? Another one would be the price of the Tesla Roadster. It’ll run you $100,000–more, if you want any extras. Also, there’s a 15-month wait time. However, you can swing by the new Tesla Motors showroom in Los Angeles, on the corner of Santa Monica and Sepulveda. Who knows? Maybe they’ll let you take a test drive!
