Next gen Roadster

[AnOutsider]

What exactly is the GEN 3 platform, does anyone know? Seems like it's just a smaller wheelbase and battery pack? Not a car engineer, so not sure what else would be different. If they're keeping with the skateboard thing, then just build a smaller skateboard. I suppose they could be ditching it for Gen 3 if it makes manufacturing cheaper tho?

[Grendal]

Tesla has announced a GEN III crossover, will that push back the Roadster 2.0 even further? My guess would be yes. What do you think?

[dsm363]

I think they'll need a halo car again at some point and I'm hoping it's around 2015-2016 after Model X launch. It would be such a small volume and if based on the Gen III platform, could serve as a test bed for that prior to rollout. I wonder if they'll go further into supercar territory than the Roadster already is ($150k with sub 3 second 0-60 times) or go more for a Porsche fighter and around $100k in a 2+2 seater.

[Grendal]

I think they'll need a halo car again at some point. I wonder if they'll go further into supercar territory than the Roadster already is ($150k with sub 3 second 0-60 times) or go more for a Porsche fighter and around $100k in a 2+2 seater.

My guess would be the latter. With the skateboard design you gain a lot of space. Tesla will have learned how to do the four wheel drive right with the Model X. My guess would be sub 3 second, 2+2 seater, and four wheel drive for the performance version. Interestingly, I don't see them focusing on range with the new Roadster. There will plenty of Teslas that can go the distance and it won't be as necessary to drive a sporty roadster for long commutes. I'd say the starting pack for the new Roadster is 150 miles. Why not?

[AnOutsider]

No way. 200 min, likely 250 to match the old roadster. It's an expensive car, so a lot of battery cost can be absorbed into that.

[frequencydip]

Any new roadster has to have better range than the old roadster or no one will buy it... People expect upgrades not steps backwards... 300 mile plus min...

[richkae]

The Roadster is a great car but it has many deficiencies when compared to other sports cars that are actually used as sports cars.
That means sport driving them on a race track or autocross - things people who really love sports cars want to do.

The air cooled motor gets hot and limits your power. Solved with a water cooled motor.
The big battery box makes for a high CG which hurts the handling. Solved with the Model S battery under the floor design.
The little tires and tiny brakes hurt real performance. Solved by designing the car from the ground up and not starting with an Elise and adding 800 pounds.
The limited battery makes it difficult to use as a track car. Solvable with supercharging or battery swapping.
No control over regen and power characteristics limit tuning and driving styles. Easy software-only fixes.
Acceleration drops off quickly at the high end because of the single gear and low top speed. Not sure how they solve this.
It's a black box and people want to tinker. Again, no idea.

Fixing most of those things makes the next Roadster a dramatically better sports car. I want those things before worrying about improving the 0-60.

[TEG]

Nice summary, Richkae...

[7racer]

I use to race my RX-7 more and only occasionally now the GT-R.

I would say for an all electric sports car....I would rather see Tesla "do it differently".

I don't care as much about little tires. You just want tires that can fit cheap sticky rubber. Some of the fastest cars on the track have small wheels. Also most real racers swap out large wheels for smaller ones to save weight. 17's weigh less than the 20" on my GT-R. Also, I love regen. Brake fade is a big problem in auto racing. Many times you spend time ducting air or even the new "in" thing of spraying water to cool the brakes. If the regen could take that away that would be a huge advantage on a twisty course. Also, I think the brakes could be easily made better with a bigger brake and ceramic (to keep weight down).

About top speed...couldn't gearing fix that?

[TEG]

...About top speed...couldn't gearing fix that?

Electric motors are great at providing gobs of low end torque for good off the line acceleration.
I think top speed can be limited by the power output capability of the battery pack.
Electric cars tend to be extremely efficient (compared to ICE vehicles) at low speeds, so get decent range around town even with a (relatively) small amount of on-board stored energy.
As wind resistance (at high speed) starts to become a more dominant factor, the limit energy stored on-board starts to become more noticeable.
(In other words, and EV traveling at 150MPH is likely to run out of juice rather quickly.)
Basically, if you start adding gears in an effort to get higher top speed I think you will run into other limitations.