Driving the Tesla Roadster: Soothing your conscience

At a recent press event, we drove the only pure-electric road-ready automobile currently (ahem) on sale in the United States. "Limited" production is the watchword here. The $110,000 Tesla Roadster is built only to specific pre-sold orders, and during the five- to six-month wait time the company holds a $50,000 deposit. So far about 500 have been sold.

The Tesla Roadster is based on the Lotus Elise, and the basic car is built at the Lotus plant in the Hethel, England. Final assembly takes place in California. In place of the Elise's mid-mounted engine goes an electric motor producing the equivalent of 240 horsepower. A large lithium-ion battery is visible beneath the rear deck. The claimed range is 240 miles, and charging time is said to be 3.5 hours using 240-volt current.

The first thing we noticed when starting off is the instantly available and abundant torque, which is a claimed 280 foot-pounds. To put that in perspective, that's even more torque than Nissan/Infiniti's new 3.7-liter V6 engine and you don't have to wait for the engine to rev up to get it. As a result, the Tesla is quick. Very quick.

The claimed 0-60 mph sprint is 3.9 seconds, accomplished in an uninterrupted spurt since the electric gearbox has just a single speed. I couldn't clock that for myself at the time, but it seemed entirely believable. And we can't forget that that thrill ride comes without consuming a drop of petroleum or a wisp of greenhouse gas from the tailpipe. That is, unless your electricity source for the juice comes from a coal-fired power plant.

Handling is another strong suit. Like the Lotus, and pardon the cliché, the Tesla corners like a go-kart. The unassisted steering is quick and direct, and the car stays flat in curves. The ride is jarring, especially at low speeds, even though the Tesla suspension is tuned to be softer than that in the Elise. During our limited drive, however, we couldn't tell how a rapid deceleration would affect the handling, given the heavy-weight battery pack at the rear. While currently the car lacks stability control, Tesla officials said that it's in the works.

Like the Elise we tested, climbing into the narrow cockpit is awkward, since you have to swing your legs over a tall, wide sill and then sort of drop into the deep bucket seat. Hoisting yourself out requires similar athleticism. The interior is pretty basic. A touch screen on your left displays the car's remaining range. The state of battery charge is displayed next to the odometer.

The Tesla is certainly a novel and fun-to-drive toy, and if nothing else it's a sexy advertisement for the possibilities of electric propulsion. It also lends bit of moral superiority, since unlike a similarly priced Mercedes-Benz SL or Porsche 911 it not only keeps the environment clean but salves the conscience, as well.

—Gabe Shenhar

Learn about driving green in the Consumer Reports special fuel economy section.