#TeslaRoadster

Tesla hasn’t forgotten about its Roadster owners despite the spotlight being on its Model S sedan.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a recall affecting 29,222 Tesla Model S vehicles and the possible fire risk with their NEMA 14-50 Universal Mobile Connector (UMC).

Hertz is now offering Tesla vehicle rentals at two California airports as part of its Dream Cars program.

Good news for Tesla continues to stack up, as a recent study shows that the Roadster’s battery life is stronger than originally expected, even by the automaker.

Detroit Electric is back and promising to launch an all-electric sports car next month.

Despite earlier reports that Tesla would have a successor to its Roadster model set to debut sometime in 2015, the American electric automaker has confirmed that a decision on a new Roadster has not yet been made. 

Elon Musk, tech mogul and co-founder of Tesla is coming to the defense of his company as it faces a lawsuit from dealers in Massachusetts and New York.

Early adopters of the Tesla Roadster who may now be eyeing the American automaker’s more practical Model S can now trade in their convertible sports car towards a new sedan.

Plenty of exotic supercars made their way to Russ Beach Smith Falls Airport to take part in the ‘Race the Runway 2012’ charity event that raises money for the Russ Beach Smith Falls-Montague Aviation Museum. At the event, millions of dollars worth of exotics took part in a 1/4-mile drag race on the paved runway, with an electric Tesla Roadster turning in the best time of the day.

EVs are trying to break into the mainstream, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is predicting that within 20 years, at least half of our cars will be all-electric.

Arguably the most successful startup company to build and sell electric vehicles, Tesla is beginning delivery of its second car today: the Model S sedan. 

Customers who buy the new Tesla Model S, due out in a month’s time, could enjoy the longest range of any EV to date according to CEO Elon Musk, though you’ll definitely never achieve the 400-mile potential range.

Ford recently announced the EPA fuel efficiency rating for its electric Focus model. Since it doesn’t burn any gasoline, the number isn’t in miles per gallon (MPG), but was given as miles per gallon gasoline equivalent, or MPGe. A new term to the automotive lexicon, it’s worth exploring exactly what MPGe means and how an MPGe rating is determined, especially as the number of electric cars and plug-in electric hybrids on the roads continues to increase.

Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson is paid to piss you off, it’s what he does best. Maybe someone should have forwarded the memo to Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk.

Musk probably should have taken Top Gear’s pot shots with a laugh and kept doing business, but it’s easy to understand why he might be feeling defensive. His company keeps hitting nasty potholes in the road to success, like the “bricking” problem that apparently compromises the battery system in Tesla vehicles, a costly repair.

This Top Gear drama started back to December 2008 when the show gave a mixed review to the Tesla Roadster. Their program said the car failed to meet its advertised 200-mile range, instead only achieving 55 miles. That figure came from running it on a track where any vehicle would have less than optimal range, electric or otherwise. They also bashed the Roadster for having deficient brakes.

Brakes and range aside, it’s essential to remember that Top Gear is first and foremost an entertainment program. The episode depicted crew members pushing a “dead” roadster into a hangar, though the facts emerged during Tesla’s lawsuit. Surprise, surprise, the car wasn’t dead and the shot was used for effect.

This isn’t terribly dissimilar to the infamous Bugatti Veyron versus McLaren F1 drag race episode, where the show managed to eek out a Veyron victory, only after several F1 first-place finishes. Again, Top Gear is for show first, reporting second.

British Justice Tugendhat threw Tesla’s claims out in October, 2011, saying the company’s lawyers needed to amend their malicious falsehood claims.

The final chapter, (one would assume), in this one-way pissing match closed today. Justice Tugendhat dismissed Tesla’s revised claim which said there were “reasonable grounds to suspect that each of the Claimants [Top Gear] had intentionally and significantly misrepresented the range of the Roadster by claiming that it had a range of about 200 miles in that its true range on the Top Gear track was only 55 miles”.

Hopefully Tesla can move past this cat fight and focus more on the bricking issue at hand. Small car startups have enough problems without taking British TV bullies to court.

Check out Tesla CEO Elon Musk discussing the Top Gear episode in the video after the jump.

[Source: The Truth About Cars]