Tesla 2015 The Roadster 3.0 With A 400 Mile Range

Earlier this year at Tesla's annual shareholder meeting, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk said the automaker would do "something cool" with the Roadster before the end of the year, though, again, he wasn't specific. In the mid of the year, Musk told the UK's Auto Express that the Roadster would get an upgraded battery that would give the convertible a 400-mile single-charge range. That would make the convertible's range about 135 miles longer than the top-of-the-line Tesla Model S sedan.

While a new Roadster has been talked about, this update is for the first-go-round model, which was sold in the US between 2008 and 2011 and had a single-charge range of 245 miles. Whether the longer range is the only news or if there's something else in store, we'll all have to wait just a bit longer to see.
The range increase is thanks to a new cell technology that resulted in a battery that provides 70kWh in the same package as the original Roadster’s 53kWh pack. That’s an additional 31% of energy. In addition to the more power-packed battery, Tesla also shaved 15% off the Roadster’s drag coefficient and installed new tires that result in a 20% improvement on the car’s rolling resistance.

Elon Musk stated two days ago that the Model S will eventually see a similar battery update, but not anytime soon.

Strangely, the Tesla press release detailing the upgrades does not indicate if the Roadster 3.0 can recharge using the Supercharger network even though it’s highly likely. We’ve reached out to Tesla for clarification.

Clearly, Tesla is still operating as a lean startup by constantly improving existing products. The Roadster was the car that got Tesla off the line, yet it was hardly perfect; the Roadster was Tesla’s minimum viable product. Tesla kept at it and constantly rolled out updates to the vehicle through its production life. Now the company is ready to roll the sports car back out to the market with even more improvements likely discovered throughout the development of its new vehicles.

In addition to improved ability to cut through the air, the Tesla Roadster 3.0 will also move across the ground more easily. Rolling resistance it set to improve 20 percent from a rolling resistance coefficient of 11 kg per ton to 8.9 kg per ton, thanks to new tires. Other improvements like modified wheel bearings could also aid in further shaving rolling resistance.



 We’ll see just how much better the Roadster 3.0 is than the original Tesla Roadster when the automaker puts on a public demonstration in early January 2015 with a non-stop drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles (approximately 381 miles). It would be a seriously impressive feat to so drastically improve the operational range of the Roadster to more than 400 miles, especially given that the original version from 2008 had a 244-mile range.

The Model S 85, by comparison, has a range of 265 miles. Tesla hasn’t yet announced how much the Roadster 3.0 upgrade will cost when it begins taking appointments in spring 2015, or how many of the 2,500 Roadsters sold it expects to upgrade. No new major range improvement is expected for the Model S in the near future, but this Tesla Roadster 3.0 is as good evidence as any that Tesla is not one to let any of its projects collect dust on the shelf.

 

So you are going to have a latest model of 2015, it is better to donate your old car to companies who are working for humanity, like American Red Cross or AbilitiesUnited.