As regular visitors of this website will know I married my girlfriend on June 25th, 2010. During the preparations we were thinking about our transport needs from to the city hall, the party location and a few photo locations. Doing this by bicycle would have been the true sustainable choice but the distances involved and our clothing made this impractical. So, it would have to be a car. Because this was to be the day of our lives this could of course not be just any car.

After thinking about it for a while I set my sights on a Tesla Roadster, a electric high performance sports car. But how to get ones hands on one? I’ve made quite a few test drives in electric vehicles in recent times, and that allowed me to build a nice network. But even in this network I could not find a Roadster to hire for a day. Even the sustainable transport department at work couldn’t get me a Roadster for a reasonable price.

The solution came, as happens often, by accident. A colleague at work e-mailed me a link to a movie () featuring the Roadster, and in that movie the company Remotion was named – which is now called The New Motion (). I gathered my courage and sent them an e-mail in which I told them who I was, what I did (a.o. this website), that I was getting married and that I was looking for a sustainable (or at least as sustainable as possible) wedding car. The e-mail I received back from Alef Arendsen (who can be seen in the movie) exceeded all my expectations. The company extended all cooperation and allowed me to use the Roadster at no cost (!) as our wedding car, and employees even delivered and retrieved the car. I couldn’t believe my luck!

On Thursday night, June 24th, the day before our marriage, the car would be delivered and of course I couldn’t stop glancing out of the window for over een hour. Suddenly half of all cars passing seemed to be metallic blue, but at the agreed time the Roadster appeared. The man who delivered the car gave my thorough instructions on how to operate the car, and I dropped him at the train station afterwards.

The car was delivered with its battery nearly depleted – it had 30km left on the range indicator – so I immediately parked it on the driveway of my parents-in-law where it could charge while we had diner. After about an hour the range indicator told us we could go 50km, and so we went for a spin through the city we live in. The next day we used the Roadster as our wedding car, which was fantastic.

The car

Tesla Motors () introduced the Roadster on the market in February 2008, and it caused a sensation. Electric vehicles up to then had a bit of a dull image because they were slow and looked unconventional. The Roadster was different, it was a hip sports car which was immediately bought by movie stars and other celebrities. And besides an appearance which appealed to car lovers the performance was breathtaking: the acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h takes less than four seconds and the range on a battery charge should be near 400 km, according to the specifications. If you like numbers, more specifications can be found here ().

About 1200 Roadsters have been produced since production started in the beginning of 2008 (it’s July 2010 now), which is more than of any other electric car.

The design of the Roadster is based on the Lotus Elise (), but development of the Roadster saw the designs diverge until only about 6% of the parts were interchangeable.

Driving

The Roadster is extremely low. When entering the car you actually let yourself slide into the car, and exiting the car means you climb out while holding the windshield pillar. And while all that is quite easy to do after a bit of practice, it’s a different story when you wife-to-be is wearing a wedding dress. Fortunately, having the car delivered the evening before our wedding day meant we could practice this, and with a bit of help from me she was able to enter and exit the car reliably and somewhat elegantly.

After sitting down it feels like you’re sitting on the street. I estimate you’re about 25-30 cm lower than in an average car. Being seated so low gives a whole new perspective on traffic, the first few kilometers I couldn’t shake the feeling that other motorists would overlook us! Of course the opposite is true, this car is very notable in traffic

The view from the car isn’t brilliant. You’re seated quite ‘deeply’ in the car, and that quite limits your view on the traffic around you. Especially the rear part of the car is relatively high, which made the first few times of parallel parking a challenge. My wife and I are both quite tall, and the top windshield frame was in the middle of our view. We drove the car without the top on, so this wasn’t a problem at all, because then we could look over the top of the windshield frame. I expect the Roadster to be an uncomfortable car in the long term for people of our size, because driving with the top on will basically mean you continuously have to cringe to look under the windshield frame.

Starting the car is simple: just like in a fossil car you insert your key into the ignition (which isn’t an ignition at all, we might need to think of a new word for that , turn it a bit and finally you touch the ‘arm’ button on the center console LCD touch screen. The is then ‘on’ – although nothing shows, no sound, no vibrations, smoke, nothing. After selecting the ‘D’ button on the gear selector you can just press the accelerator and off you go. Of course I drove very carefully for the first few kilometers because I didn’t know the car, and it’s striking how the Tesla engineers cleverly designed the drive system in such a way that it’s actually easy to drive calmly. Never did I have the feeling that the car wanted to get away from me. The Roadster has traction control – which I didn’t dare turn off. I think that with my lack of driving experience in fast cars and as much torque at the rear wheels als the Roadster has I would have lost control quickly without it.

After a few kilometers of getting used to the car the Roadster’s performance started to beckon me. The feeling when I fully depressed the accelerator on an empty stretch of road for the firs time is very hard to describe (), this car accelerates so fast it’s nearly scary. A car journalist described it thus: “With so much torque from literally no revs the acceleration punch is wholly alien.” (from Wikipedia ()). It’s actually hard to explain to people who haven’t driven this car how it feels to be pressed into your seat when you floor the accelerator. When describing all this at work only the colleagues who drive motorcycles seemed to really grasp what I was talking about. And even that is different: not only is the Roadster an automatic, it has one (fixed) gear. This means that the spectacular acceleration can be continuously kept up to at least 100km/h – and probably way beyond that but I didn’t try that.

To be honest my mind was on our wedding day, and so I don’t remember all details of driving the Roadster as clearly. The suspension was hard but not uncomfortable. Hilversums roads aren’t the best, but I can’t remember being rattled very much. The breaks are very good, after a sprint to about 100km/h it decelerates fast. The seats were comfortable (although we were in it for a short while only) and gave good sideways support, but the black leather became very hot in the sun. De cockpit is quite small and gives the impression that you pull on the car instead of sitting down in it. The Roadster steers very directly, it feels a bit like a (heavy) go-kart.

One thing that I do remember disctinctly is cornering at high(er) speeds. On the evening before our wedding we took the car for a spin, and of course we did numerous sprints as that’s what this car does best. I never drove really fast, most fun can be had between standstill and 50km/h,  and thus I never had to take a corner at high speeds. When we drove away from the city hall, after the wedding ceremony, I drove away as fast as the Roadster would go. There were, after all, a lot of people watching and that makes the little boy in me come out After about 40 meters I had to make a right-angled right turn, but when I got there we were certainly going 40km/h, maybe even faster. I didn’t let up on the accelerator, but dragged the car around the corner. I felt the traction control system reduce power (because the tyres lost a bit of their grip) and as soon as I straightened out increase power to full. Afterward people complimented me with ‘how I drove it like a real sports car’. So now I have revealed how easy the Roadster makes this! Again compliments to the Tesla engineers for making the car so easy to drive.

Despite having had a great time with the Roadster I was happy that a The New Motion employee picked up the car on Friday night during the party. I have to be honest and tell you that having so much power at my disposal did bad things to my driving style. I think I can say that normally I’m a calm and defensive (en energy-efficient) driver, but the Roadster invites the driver to be much more liberal with the accelerator.

The boot deserves special mention. Well, boot… It’s only marginally bigger than the glove compartment and when the charging cable, the rolled-up roof and my jacket were in there is was nearly full. I guess the average Roadster-owner won’t find this much of a problem as this isn’t the sort of car to go on holidays with (although this Roadster drove from the UK to the Netherlands () under its own power, so it can be done!).

Directly in front of the boot is the controller which contains all the electronics for controlling the motor, the charging and discharging of the battery pack, and in front of that is the battery pack against the rear of the two seats.

Describing the charging process is easy because it’s extremely simple. The car comes with a charging cable which has a normal 240V plug on one side, and a large plug on the other side which fits in the charging socket under the ‘tank filler cap’. After inserting both plugs, one in any normal wall socket and the other in the car, the charging will begin. There is a yellow ring around the charging socket which starts to pulse to indicate the car is charging. On the center console LCD screen the range indicator increases as the battery charges.

Conclusions

Conclusion? This is the ultimate playing car. No less, no more. It’s not a real practical car, if you ever have a backache this car will prove impossible to get into and out of, and also ladies who wear short skirts will find it difficult to enter and exit this car modestly. The small boot, the high price… all things that will make this car attractive to a small audience only.

But… this car can have a large effect as a pioneer in electric transport. It shows that electric personal transport is possible, practical and fun. This will change how people view electric vehicles, also electric bicycles and scooters. In that way the Tesla Roadster, despite obviously being a niche product, is an important milestone. The Roadster may have a large influence, even in the practical sense: by driving interest in electrical transport it could drive an increase in the scale of production of batteries which could potentially drive the price down. Because the price of its batteries constitutes a big part (often the biggest part) of the total price of an electric vehicle this could have a big influence. It could also stimulate research into new types of battery which need less exotic materials, cost less energy to make and which a higher capacity at a lower weight and volume. This will benefit all forms of electric transportation, from electric bicycles, scooters to electric cars and trucks.

As always after having driven a (more or less) sustainable vehicle I always ask myself the question: would I buy it? The answer, in this case, is of course no. First and foremost: I simply cannot afford the € 100.000 () that this car costs. Even I could afford it, I wouldn’t buy it because we don’t need a car. It would be a luxury item because we can meet nearly all our transport demands without a car, by having chosen are place of residence with foresight – and that’s of course more sustainable than any car on the road, even if its electric. If in the future we feel that we would need to buy a car we would choose a more practical car, one with four seats and more space in the boot.

Sound

Finally this: being electric the Roadster is quiet. Not completely quiet, while drive the transmission can be heard as a soft whistle, the tyres and wind noise can be heard, etc. but still, it’s much quieter than the average fossil car. In the past few months, the main stream media have been featuring news items () stating that electric and hybrid vehicles are dangerous because they’re quiet. Pedestrians and cyclists are said to not being able to hear these vehicles, increasing the chances for an accident. I fully agree that cars, electric or otherwise, are a danger to pedestrians and cyclists but I think that’s more because they’re heavy and fast (and often driven by inattentive drivers!) than because of their sound. There are calls to add an artificial noise module to hybrid and electric cars to warn pedestrians and cyclists.

I realise that I’m in no way an expert in this area, but having driven several electric vehicles I don’t see any additional danger to pedestrians and cyclists when compared to fossil cars – if the drivers realises the properties of the vehicle. I wonder whether the statement that quiet vehicles are dangerous has been thoroughly researched. I don’t take this lightly, because I’m of the strong opinion that really sustainable road users like pedestrians and cyclists should be protected as much as possible.

Against a possible increase of traffic deaths are the 50.000 people who die () every year in Europe as a consequence of traffic noise. I can only hope that any measures taken will be considered from all angles, and not be rushed just so that politicians can be seen ‘doing something’. I think the solution, if there even is a problem, should be sought in some extra attention during driving lessons and childrens’ traffic class. Fortunately more people () are critical about these developments. At this point in time I’m of the opinion that quieter (and less) car traffic would be a blessing to society.

A final note about sound: in the 24 hours that we had the Roadster it was never completely silent. The car has a cooling system for its battery, motor and controller, and that system was continuously active, even when the car was just parked. After driving, and especially after a few sprints, the two big fans at the front of the car start blowing quite loudly for a few minutes, but even while just being parked a soft gurgle of the cooling fluid can be heard. During charging the battery was actively cooled. At no point are these noises annoying, but they clearly differ from a fossil car.

The New Motion

As I indicated at the beginning of this article, the Tesla Roadster was kindly made available by The New Motion (), a company which offers a broad range of services around electric transport. They can furnish electric cars for purchase or lease, they can install charge points, arrange replacement transport and much more. Take a look at their website or read their interesting blog ().

Alef en Kim, I would like to thank you for allowing us to use your Roadster for use as our wedding car, it certainly made our wedding day even more wonderful than it already was.