Tesla's Open House - Motor Trend

http://www.motortrend.com/features/consumer/1010_tesla_open_house/index.html

This article was just posted on Thursday. I found a bit of interesting tid-bits in it that the forum might enjoy. :biggrin:

Three battery packs are being produced, for the Roadster, the Smart EV, and the upcoming Mercedes-Benz A-Class EV for Europe -- a pack that possesses what's currently the highest battery energy density in world.

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The day of our visit, Tesla's Roadster fleet turned its seven-millionth-mile in the field...Tesla's data trove is now so sizable, that sharing insights...is a significant negotiating tool.

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When speaking of the Model S battery pack they said:

...the battery's structural encasement, all by itself, offers more torsional rigidity than the Roadster's entire chassis.

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Finally:

And, in the works is an SAE 1772 adaptor for the Roadster's now non-SAE-standard charging coupling.

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tdelta1000 said:

One other point that I thought was interesting was the deminsions of the Model S battery pack.

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From Motor Trend about the pack:

Appearing to be about the size of a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood and roughly 4 1/2 inches thick (with the corners scalloped off)

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That's a pretty massive battery pack indeed. According to RSportsCars the Model S' wheelbase is 116.5-inches.

tdelta1000 said:

I feel the article highlights is Tesla's strengthen as the leader of EV vehicles.

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It was a nice article indeed. I was glad to read a positive article about Tesla from MT after their Editor-in-Chief, Angus MacKenzie, ripped on the Roadster (and Tesla in general) by saying it wasn't significant compared to the Volt.

He (conveniently) forgot to mention that Lutz himself has said that without the Roadster the Volt would still be a pipe dream.