Can the Tesla Roadster deliver on its promise of world-beating acceleration?
Quick pop quiz. What is the fastest accelerating car in the world and just how quickly can it hit the landmark 0-60mph (0-97km/h) acceleration landmark?
It’s a harder question than you think and if you went with the general consensus of the Bugatti Chiron, which can crack 97km/h in 2.4 seconds, you’d be wrong. How about the Nissan GT-R or Hennessey Venom GT then? Nope, wrong again as they will both need 2.7s to make it to the 60mph.
Everyone that answered the second-generation Tesla Roadster however, gets a gold star as the new all-electric drop-top claims a mind-boggling 0-60mph sprint time of just 1.9s.
Yep, you read that one right, less than two seconds is all it takes for Tesla’s new convertible to hit the limit of Australian road legal speeds, or near enough anyway.
To further hammer home how astounding that figure is, by the time you finish reading this sentence, the Roadster will be travelling almost 27 metres per second and will continue on to a top speed in excess of 400km/h.
What enables such phenomenal acceleration is the use of three electric motors – one each spinning the rear wheels and a single unit to power the front axle – gifting the two-door with all-wheel-drive grip.
There is plenty of traction to get the power to the ground then, but what sort of stratospherically high outputs is the all-electric Roadster pushing?
Unfortunately, Tesla is playing its cards pretty close to its chest and kept exact power figures to itself, but the company has been gracious enough to reveal that the 200kWh battery will produce a scarcely believable 10,000Nm of torque.
And that's not a typo either, the Roadster’s torque figure is claimed to be around 100 times the output of a 1.2-litre four-cylinder-equipped Fiat 500 or the equivalent of more than two V8-powered Aston Martin Vantages.
The hyperboles just don't stop there either, as the Roadster will continue on to complete a standing quarter mile in just 8.8s – quicker than any car being produced in the world today including the formidable Bugatti Chiron and Dodge Challenger SRT Demon.
The 200kWh battery pack, which is twice the size of the Model S luxury sedan and Model X large SUV flagship P100D variants, can even reach a driving range of nearly 1000km on a single charge.
Seems like a pretty compelling package then, doesn’t it? Heaps of driving range, unparalleled performance and sleek looks, you’d be safe to expect a pricetag bordering on unobtainable but Tesla is asking just $261,000 before on-roads for a base car and $326,000 for a limited-run Founders Series.
While many sceptics will bemoan how the Roadster is just in the prototype stage at the moment and a production version simply cannot deliver on the promises, Tesla actually held test drives (albeit from the passenger seat) of the rule-breaking sportscar during its unveiling.
Well-heeled (and well-hyped) customers attending the reveal of Tesla’s new all-electric Semi truck could put down fifty grand to secure a Roadster and experience first-hand its extraordinary acceleration, with videos surfacing to put the naysayers to rest.
A radical departure from the first-generation Roadster that put Tesla on the automotive map, this new-generation model also sports seats for four and a futuristic cabin with large touchscreen display, as well as retaining the removable roof.
Wealthy readers who are salivating at the thought of getting behind the wheel of the new Roadster will need to exercise patience though, with the first deliveries expected to arrive Stateside around 2020 and the new Tesla model likely to arrive Down Under sometime thereafter.
While the new Roadster resurrects the nameplate worn by Tesla’s first model, comparing both old and new side-by-side doesn’t really expose any obvious familial links.
The first Roadster, which launched in 2008, was only produced in limited quantities and numbered just 2500 units worldwide by the end of its life four years later in 2012.
Built on the foundation of a Lotus Elise, Tesla stripped out and threw away all the bits it didn't need including the engine and mechanicals to stuff the body with its all-electric drivetrain.
The original Roadster was powered by a 53kWh battery that enabled up to 400km of driving range on a single charge, while producing 185kW of power and 370Nm of torque for a 0-60mph run in around 4.0s.
The tech company was hailed as an innovator at the time for producing an emissions-free sportscar that held up against some of the best in the business, but it wasn’t until the release of the Model S in 2012 that the public started to take notice.
Equipped with varying sizes of battery from 60 to 100kWh, the Model S luxury sedan could achieve up to 610km of driving range on a single charge and was even pretty handy at sprinting away from the traffic lights despite its two tonne weight.
Over the years, Tesla has refined its most-popular model with over-the-air updates that unlocked a Ludicrous launch control model that could get some Model S’ to 60mph in as little as 2.2s.
Maybe the new Roadster isn’t such a sci-fi fantasy then? A lighter body, better torque distribution, stickier tyres and improved aerodynamics could be enough to cut 0.2s from the 0-60mph time, but we’ll wait and see how it does once the car is available in a few short years.
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