Tesla are still struggling to get the final version of the Tesla roadster out of the door - 40 odd cars have been delivered now but without the original spec 2 speed transmission so fail to meet anticipated performance figures. Teh current spingle speed transmission gets a claimed 5.7 secs to 60mph.
It appeared that Tesla moved away from development of the 2 speed transmission solution and 1.5 is going to be a reduction gear solution instead.
Even though performance is now mooted at 125pm max (down from the orginal 135mph) this requires a fairly beefy upgrade to the PEM to provide more current, which will result in more heat, limiting power output. The original roadster design uses an air cooling system which will not cope. Project Whitestar (the saloon Tesla project) has already addressed this by shifting to a liquid cooled solution. Ricardo are developing the reduction gear with Tesla.
The downside to all this is of course weight and power usage - the Tesla roadster is already turning into a porky S2 it would seem. As well as having to retro fit transmission to pre sold customer cars the new PEV will have to be fitted, this all starts to look very expensive for a company that wants to be cash flow positive in six months.
The new 1.5 system was supposed to be delivered in mid september but no sign yet but as Tesla have anounced a freeze on Whitestar (Model S) production tooling etc until they get a US govt grant (Q2 2009) then this might delay things even further.
