Category: Exotic Sports 
Price Range: No data available
Explosive performance, sharp handling, sleek looks, silent running.
Lengthy charge time, expensive, crashy ride.
Redefines our expectation of what a sports car is and how it should be powered.
Here's how to shatter any nasty preconceptions you have about life with an electric car.
Get in Tesla Roadster. Turn key. Select drive. Plant right foot.
What happens next is, quite frankly, astonishing. The Roadster propels itself towards the horizon in almost complete silence. The whole experience is weird... and mildly scary.
With traction control on, there's not even a squirm from the rear tyres as the Tesla delivers seemingly endless urge. At first, the experience is nothing short of eerie with the grey matter struggling to comprehend the alarming levels of acceleration.
According to Tesla, the Roadster hits 60mph in just 3.9 seconds, but even more impressive is the explosive mid-range acceleration. The Tesla eventually tops out at 125mph. With only one gear, there's no hesitation for a downchange, just more G-force generating go, even at motorway speeds.
But how does it drive? Developed using the sublime Lotus Elise underpinnings as a starting point, the Tesla had the best possible of starts, but make no mistake, this is no electric Elise conversion.
The heavy batteries increased the Elise's lithe kerbweight by almost a third, to 1,220kg. This understandably called for a huge re-engineering and beefing up of the suspension and chassis.
On the road the Lotus DNA is still easy to trace, but some of the agility has been blunted and steering feel lost, especially off-centre. Our car understeered far earlier than the lighter Lotus, but still responded well to throttle inputs as you tighten or widen your line on cornering. It's agile, but it's still the engine that is the single most impressive aspect of the Roadster.
The maximum torque peak of 275lb-ft is developed at 0rpm where from then on to 6,000rpm (the engine tops out at 14,000rpm) the torque is constant. This understandably accounts for the incredible take off from a standing start, but it also means the Tesla is relaxing to drive as a large capacity V8 - albeit one locked away in a soundproof room.
