Tesla Roadster Begins Production
Hawthorne (CA) - Tesla Motors has announced that it will begin regular production of its all-electric Roadster. Capable of going from 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, the car gets 220 miles per charge and is of course a zero-emission vehicle. Tesla CEO and President Ze'ev Drori says the 2008 model year is sold out, but you can plunk down a hefty $100,000 deposit to reserve next year's cars.
So far over 900 of the two-seater Roadsters have been reserved. Drori says the company will ramp up production to make 100 cars a month by early next year. The first shipments will reach customers in about four weeks.
The Roadster uses more than two thousand battery modules that are bundled together towards the rear of the vehicle. Each module is isolated to prevent a single overheating battery from taking the whole system down. A single charge lasts approximately 220 miles, according to Tesla.
While the first cars will be two-seaters, the company plans on making a 5-passeger sedan in 2010.
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Humphrey Cheung was a senior editor at Tom's Hardware, covering a range of topics on computing and consumer electronics. You can find more of his work in many major publications, including CNN and FOX, to name a few.