Tesla announces Roadster 3.0 upgrade package, may do over 640km [+Videos]



Tesla Motors has announced an upgrade package for their outgoing Roadster 2.5 – the all-electric Lotus-based performance car, and the upgrades go beyond just the regular battery swap.

Tesla Roadster (3)

Despite being just a prototype, the engineers at Tesla are confident that it will do over 640 km on a single charge. The current Roadster 2.5 manages about 400 km, and sprints from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.7 seconds.

So what’s new in the Roadster 3.0? For owners of the electric sports car, the upgrade package gives you a new battery pack, but it won’t be your typical lithium ion pack. Tesla hasn’t yet revealed the new cell, but they claimed that it packs 31 percent more energy than its lithium ion cell, and will deliver about 70 kWh.

Tesla Roadster (14)

 

That’s not all. The upgrade also gives you a retrofitted aero kit, effectively reducing the drag coefficient down to 0.31 Cd, from 0.36. Its tyres are new and deliver lower rolling resistance (about 20 percent less), whereas its wheel bearings and residual brake drag will contribute to reduce the overall rolling resistance of the car.

There’s no price tag on the retrofitting upgrade as of yet, but the Californian company did reveal that they will put the Roadster 3.0 package to a real-world test early next year with a road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Tesla also said that they are confident that this will not be the last upgrade for the Roadster.

Tesla Roadster (10)

What’s most exciting about this breakthrough in cell technology is that if it’s equally as safe as the lithium ion pack, then we could potentially expect all Tesla cars to have a similar upgrade. All told, we wonder, could this be the fruit of Tesla and BMW’s collaboration in the field of battery technology?

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