Tesla Goes 313 Miles on Single Charge

It looks like this could be a new record: A Tesla Roadster has squeezed its battery for 313 miles. The red Roadster competing in Global Green Challenge traveled through the Australian outback from Alice Springs to Coober Pedy and rolled into town with three miles left on the battery. Owner Simon Hackett and co-driver Emilis Prelgauskas covered 501 kilometers — 313 miles — on one charge.

www.wired.com...

You won't be driving cross country on it, but it seems that it's now more realistic for people to commute long distances in an electric vehicle. Now, if only they would take the technology inside of the Tesla Roadster and put it in a car that everyone can afford.

Not until the oil barons and their car-manufacturing buddies have squeezed every last penny out of us for their oil and their gas-guzzlers.

I DO enjoy the fact that the oil-producing countries are getting somewhat nervous seeing the breakneck speed at which alternative energy sources and electric cars improve and evolve, realizing "the good years" might be seriously over..(Didn't the Saoudi's ask for some kind of financial backup for 'if the oil fails/runs out/loses it's value?? Can't find the article yet, it's somewhere on ATS)

I am interested what will happen to the Middle East when The West no longer needs to lick up to them for their oil (still would be needed for plastics and such, though..)

Could lead to some rather interesting dynamics in international poltics. Anyone care to speculate?

[edit on 10/27/2009 by diakrite]

Originally posted by LiquidLight
You won't be driving cross country on it

Depends on the country, I guess.

313 miles - that's about 500km.

500km is a decent day's driving, in my opinion. I don't like to do more than that in a single shot if I can avoid it. If it takes the car two charges to get from, say, Aomori to Tokyo, then that's reasonable - because I need to recharge for the night, myself.

I guess the next major hurdle is getting the charge time down. Going from their website, the fastest solution they have is a 4 hour complete charge. Not unreasonable for a road trip - that's dinner and a bit of sightseeing, or overnight at the hotel. 4 hours is fast, but if they can get that down to a quick charge, say 30 minutes, they'll be on everyone's shopping list.