Well, I didn't really stomp on it, because the owner was watching. :-) The slowdown as I released the gas pedal would take some getting used to, and the climbing in and out is awkward, and obviously there's no trunk space to speak of, but otherwise, that thing is sweet.
I think the body is the same as a Lotus Elise, which makes it very low with no useful trunk space. The transmission is just a 1-speed, so that's probably the cause of the slowdown you felt when you took your foot off the throttle.
Did you just drive it on a straight road? Or did you get to take it over some curves?
It's possible the slowdown is regenerative braking kicking in. I have an old Solectria Force which hardly has any pickup at all, but boy does that regen slow you down!
The new 1.5 transmission allows better performance than the first ones they'd been using. The gen 1 transmissions fall apart after a few thousand hours.
They had a voluntary recall to replace the transmission. It seems it was draining charge while "off", and it had some problems with acceleration/deceleration (although I don't know the specifics of that bit).
A lovely looking car -- but US$80K (the difference between it and, say, a Smart Car) still buys a heck of a lot of gas... all other considerations aside, of course (I'm a pedestrian, myself...).
I hope I get a chance to drive my brother's someday; I'd really like to. (The main barrier to this is not that he's in San Diego, but that the only Tesla he currently owns is the desktop wallpaper on his computer. But hopefully they'll still be making them by the time he saves enough to get one -- I'm not sure how serious he is, so I have no idea how long that will take!)
:-) I'm waiting until they open the New York sales/maintenance office (flatbedding it 200 miles for major repairs is plausible, 3000 miles is not) but by that point, the Aptera (http://www.aptera.com/) might be plausible (though the Mini-E probably won't be...)
The new transmissions are supposed to be shipping "now" so it could have one - the "easy" way to tell is if you can get to 120mph from 0 without shifting or only 60 :-)
So. If you were working on arousing jealousy in car geeks and greenies, you couldn't have done better. Being a bit of both hurts sometimes, especially when there's not enough spare for a Tesla.
But... Pennies per mile... Hmmm... Even when gas was $4/gallon, even if you only got 20 mpg, wazzat -- 20 cents per mile? And now that gas is closer to $1.50, and realistically I do get 30 mpg, wazzat, 5 cents per mile? Guess I wanna know how many pennies. Not detracting from the coolness -- just saying that "economy" is probably not the reason to buy one. :-)
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Did you just drive it on a straight road? Or did you get to take it over some curves?
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Did this one have the new transmission?
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Cool that she let you all try it out.
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Are you free tomorrow morning? IM me?
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I have a feeling your teacher does more than teach chemistry, but Good for Her!
I'm jealous. The most I will ever afford is my Prius.
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I hope I get a chance to drive my brother's someday; I'd really like to. (The main barrier to this is not that he's in San Diego, but that the only Tesla he currently owns is the desktop wallpaper on his computer. But hopefully they'll still be making them by the time he saves enough to get one -- I'm not sure how serious he is, so I have no idea how long that will take!)
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DROOL *zap*
The new transmissions are supposed to be shipping "now" so it could have one - the "easy" way to tell is if you can get to 120mph from 0 without shifting or only 60 :-)
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Does your chem teacher need a houseboy?
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But... Pennies per mile... Hmmm... Even when gas was $4/gallon, even if you only got 20 mpg, wazzat -- 20 cents per mile? And now that gas is closer to $1.50, and realistically I do get 30 mpg, wazzat, 5 cents per mile? Guess I wanna know how many pennies. Not detracting from the coolness -- just saying that "economy" is probably not the reason to buy one. :-)
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