New Tesla Roadster Upgrade Promises 400-Mile Range

Is there any answer to your questions that would cause you to buy one?

Lotus Elise components, Tesla needed access to a cheap low volume chassis to build something to test out their power-train. Not a bad idea at the time for a "proof of concept".

There is a case where this wound be in Tesla's interest to give the battery packs away. Let's suppose that they're testing a new cell and BMS for mass production in the Model S, and eventually the Model 3. They'd want a bunch of beta testers who would use the battery hard, right? If thin was their real motivation for offeritg the upgrade, then offering the battery pack to Tesla Roadster owners for free wouldn't be out of the question. I don't think that's what they're going to do, but getting a bunch of batteries out into the field for real-word testing with a bunch of people who already paid a ton of money to be beta testers has got to be one of their motivations for the project. Will they give the upgrade away for free? Probably not. Will they make a profit on the whole endeavor? Probably not, because that's probably not the point. Where it will fall between those extremes is anyone's guess. I'm not in a Roadster-compatible phase of life, so I'll just wait patiently and see! And if this brings them closer to that Model 3 based wagon/CUV that I'm coveting, that's awesome. P.S. One thing that's extra interesting about this is that, if you've ever seen a Tesla Roadster up close, you'd observe that the battery compartment is behind the seats and isn't very big. Being able to fit 400 miles of electric range for any vehicle into roughly the volume of a 2 liter ICE engine (not counting the electric motor + controller + gearbox, or the gas tank) is pretty impressive, and it is almost twice as good as what they were doing before. The engineering implications of this announcement may be more important than has been discussed so far.

Your nearest working EV station is in your house. Assuming you have modern conveniences like electricity and running water at your house. EVs start every day with a full charge, and it takes about 15 seconds to plug it in when you get home. The EV charging stations are only for road trips. EVs are pretty good for cheap commuting, but not so good for road trips - though a 400 mile battery starts to change the picture. I'm likely to buy a family-friendly EV as soon as I can afford one, but keep my old Sienna for road trips.

>> I am now only fifty miles short of my nearest WORKING EV station Then do what I did - install a 60 amp level 2 charger at home. It's also portable, so I can put it into the car along with a collection of adapters for different types of power outlets. One common 240 volt source in the US are campgrounds with recreation vehicle NEMA 14-50 outlets. So, you're not dependent on EV power stations if you have the right equipment.

@mcs My friend with a Leaf did this, mounted the charging station on a board and built a bunch of adapters to plug it in to various 240 outlets and he has used the camp ground charging option on a road trip though now there are enough public fast chargers so he doesn't need to do the campground option any more. My friend with the Roadster has used the campground option to take if from Seattle to San Fransisco and back.

@Luke42 "Your nearest working EV station is in your house. Assuming you have modern conveniences like electricity and running water at your house." I'm still confused about needing the running water to charge your Tesla, but then I might find the answer shocking

@Lie2me The water's for washing stuff in the garment bag.

@petezeiss The running water is for cooling the condenser on an ethanol still. You then use the ethanol to run a generator to charge the Tesla. Don't you guys know anything about living off of the grid?

@petezeiss "Don’t you guys know anything about living off of the grid?" Nope, not a damn thing. I like my "grid" and I'm sticking with it. It makes everything around me work nice and easy

@mcs That's in keeping with the other work-arounds mentioned here. It's like reading about the preparation and special contraptions necessary for road-tripping in an open touring car 100 years ago. Except goggles *always* look cool whereas a garment bag on your roof is a little o_O

@mcs In other words you can swipe electricity anywhere you go if no one's lookin'

@Lie2me No one said anything about swiping electricity. When the people I know who used camp grounds to charge the paid the owner of the camp ground. My friend that has his charging station mobile does plug it in at his parent's and friend's houses but only after asking permission. Granted he isn't paying but he isn't swiping it either.

@Scoutdude Swiper no swiping!

@Scoutdude Aggh! +1 jillion!

@Scoutdude "Granted he isn’t paying but he isn’t swiping it either" He's freeloading. When you visit friends and relatives do you ask for gas money?

@Scoutdude >> He’s freeloading. When you visit friends and relatives do you ask for gas money? I'm a good host and will offer any visitor in an EV a charge. In the past I've given guests gasoline when they were low and didn't realize almost every gas station within 15 miles of my house closed at midnight.

@Scoutdude Where do you live?... in case I'm in the neighborhood and suffer a range anxiety attack and need a little zap to calm my nerves

@Scoutdude I would gladly pay you Tuesday for some current flow today.