The Tesla Roadster Sport - Making Green Cool

Born in Silicon Valley, financed by a PayPal billionaire

, the Tesla Roadster Sport is the first commercially viable, fully electric supercar. It was an unusual motoring start-up founded by Californian software engineer Martin Eberhard.

Eberhard's aim was to develop a car that ran on sustainable energy while, unlike all its competitors, being practical enough to use every day. The difficulty was developing the technology and putting it in a car everybody could afford. The answer was simple; they decided that their first venture would have to start out like the high tech gadgets, hyped-up, over priced and rare, becoming cheaper with time and volume. This would mean that the first line of consumers would fund the development of the company.

They created a supercar concept to prove that green cars can be sexy, sporty and practical. Tesla designed the battery and engine system but left the design and manufacture of the car to British racing legends Lotus.

The engineless cars were shipped to California where the engines were installed and charged bringing the final cost of the car to $100,000. It's a modest price for a supercar but a steal of an investment into a company that could hold the future for the motoring industry.

The company was backed by Elon Musk, a billionaire who sold PayPal to eBay; he was currently investing in commercial rocket science with an aim to put men on mars. Musk had strong ties with Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin who also invested in the company; ties to a film company gave the company chance to market the car to George Clooney, who in turn convinced Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and a list of celebrities to rival the Oscars. With celebrity endorsement came publicity and the company was the darling of the 'cleantech' industry.

There is currently a waiting list of over 1000for the car which went into production last year. Customers include all of the investors along with a' who's-who' of the rich and famous as jumping on the eco-wagon becomes increasingly fashionable.

Official testing has shown the Roadster can achieve 0-60 in 3.7 seconds with a limited top speed of 125mph, this means it can out-drag a Ferrari while keeping you pinned in your seat from the instance you touch the pedal, all in absolute silence.

Tesla plan on selling the designs for their engines to some of the big European car giants which will see a huge rise in electric car technology, meaning even if your next car isn't electric, the one after probably will be.

by: Tom Doerr

POST COMMENT

Kodak PlaySport (Zx3) HD Waterproof Pocket Video Camera (Purple) NEWEST MODEL Sport in Marbella Make Use Of Live Streaming Techniques From Talkpoint To Broadcast Sports Events Sports Betting Tips for Beginners The Fundamentals of Effective Sports Betting Find Satellite TV Sports Packages That Will Rock Your World Boston sports events in January and February 2011 Matform Products Prove Just the Ticket for Public Transport Top 7 advantages of using public transport Sports Art- A striking view of exigent cycling sports Branson Lakes Area - A Great Vacation Destination For Water Sports Enthusiasts Different kinds of recreational boats for sailors Sports art – A fabulous way of expressing the emotions of sports events