The numbers broke down to about $20 million in revenue and $1 million in profit. That $465 million is set to fund development of the company's first sedan offering, the $50,000 Tesla Model S. Not stumbling anymore, it seems. [CNN]

The current distance record, a 275-mile run completed by a Solectria Sunrise, is technically longer than the Tesla's 241-mile achievement. But the Tesla's battery showed about 38 miles worth of juice left in the battery, which, if verified, would top the Solectria's record. The Tesla roadster bested a modified Porsche 911 and several of Mitsubishi's new crop of electric vehicles.

We should note that the Tesla was driven by a company staffer, who surely knows every trick to getting the best mileage out of the Roadster. The course consists of windy mountain roads in addition to standard highway driving, so the average speed was only about 28 mph, with a high of about 56 mph. Still, a nearly 280-mile range is a serious achievement for an electric car in production. [Reg Hardware]

The gang finds that, while the Tesla is amazingly fast out of the gate and cheap to operate (once you drop the cash on buying one), it's not without its faults. For one, that battery is crazy heavy, and charging it up takes a whopping 16 hours. Also, it has a way of breaking down. But don't take my word for it, as I'm far less charismatic than Jeremy Clarkson.

Side note: bring this show to DVD/Blu-ray, BBC! Come on! [Jalopnik]

The Tesla dealership is quiet as a cage of sleeping panthers. A pack of the electric Roadsters, in varying degrees of gray, are strewn across the show floor looking like 120mph standing still. I imagine most of them are waiting for a venture capitalist to pick them up and take them from meeting to meeting for the rest of their uneventful lives. But outside is a bright blue one ready for the 10 minutes Tesla and God have handed me. This is my long awaited drive in the Tesla Roadster.

Studying her lines, it is clear to me this car has Lotus DNA, even though the car is much cleaner and classically beautiful-looking than any bug eyed Elise or Exige, and more technologically advanced than the submarine Lotus James Bond drove in The Spy Who Loved Me. The British car maker helped to design the aluminum chassis, which weighs less than 200 pounds, and they handle early stage manufacturing. Tesla stresses that the Roadster is not just an electric Lotus, and it shares no more than 10% of the parts. Much more thought went into this car to simply dismiss it as such. But Tesla's engineers did choose to work with Lotus for a reason, the same reason why most auto journalists consider the Elise one of the last pure sports cars around and a great deal. The low-power, lightweight car is simply one of the best handling and thrilling drives out there, described as some as a street-legal go-kart, and I'd agree that it's one of the best driving experiences I've ever had. With shared genetics, this is perhaps the best way to judge the limits of electric performance as compared to their gas counterparts.

It's rare that Tesla lets people drive the car without a company copilot, so we'd be tailed by a Lexus chase car since I'm sitting copilot to Tim Ferriss, the guy who set up this ride, for the first shift. Starting the car is silent, and we kept trying to turn it over because we're idiots. If you don't step on the gas accelerator, there is no idle; the car does not move forward even when your feet are not on the brakes. When Tim takes off from the lot, before I hear road noise and wind, I hear the odd purring of the transmission, which can almost be described as turbine-like. With one gear and no engine noise, it's surprisingly hard to gauge speed except by the pressure applied to the headrest by the back of your skull, the churning in your stomach or the unintended roller-coaster face of your passenger. Looking at the speedometer would be idiotic at these rates, in local traffic, but somehow we make it to about 60 for brief bursts on our way to the highway.

Zero to 60 is rated at 3.9 seconds by virtue of the electric motor's 248 HP and 280 torque. By comparison, it bests the fastest road-legal Lotus by a 10th of a second, but the power-to-weight ratio is on par with the standard Elise because the battery pack brings it to 2700 pounds (over 700 pounds heavier than the Elise). The key here is that the car doesn't have to take the time to switch gears, and electric motors deliver 100% of their torque at start. That power curve caused some problems earlier in two previous transmissions, which were being destroyed after a few thousand miles. To overcome that problem with the latest, more durable single-gear tranny, Tesla wisely used a motor with a 14000-RPM redline that could keep rotating faster in a low gear to achieve a top speed of 125 MPH while improving on the earlier transmission's zero-to-sixty time of 5.7 seconds.

Behind the wheel, I found that the entire system works together to deliver power like thick gobs of thick yogurt, with no drive lash on throttle or lift, but not too buzzy either. I have to admit it's the perfect amount of torque for a car of this weight, somewhere in between Detroit muscle and a peaky four banger in a rice rocket. With traction control off, something I was prohibited from doing, I hear you can do doughnuts in the car, something not too easy in many roadsters. That's what I heard, anyhow. In some ways, it feels automatic, without the third pedal, but when you lift off the throttle, the car's regenerative systems seize power through engine braking. It feels like you're lifting off after revving high in second or third gear in a manual transmission sports car. Tim often didn't have to use the brakes, preferring to wind down to almost nothing by engine braking alone. I'd test the brakes later. We'd entered the highway, and the car's acceleration to 80 was great, but power tapered off closer to 110 as aerodynamics of a open top car caught up to it and torque fell. Hypothetically.

I knew the acceleration was appropriate for a car of the future, besting many gas vehicles out there. But one thing I'd never heard about was what all the battery weight (again, 2700 pounds vs sub 2000 pounds) was doing to the car's handling; the Tesla would not likely turn and brake like a space-age wonder considering similar chassis, brakes, wheels and suspension. There's no escaping the laws of physics. Even magical electric cars want to stay in motion, when in motion.

I snaked the car through a set of S turns, but behind other cars, so I was not able to find much data other than that the car does not oversteer easily. Through a banked onramp to highway 280, the ghetto skidpad, I wasn't light on the gas accelerator, and on the smooth, 270-degree banked circle, I could feel the car's rack-and-pinion wanting to push a bit. I wasn't sure of my speed, so it's impossible to say when confidence was starting to fade. The chase car driver later implied they had to slow down to 60 on the ramp, but I doubt I was going much faster than that. I'll conclusively say that the car handles less confidently than an Elise, but will destroy many road-going sedans and coupes.

Back off the highway, with the chase car still catching up, I got a chance to try the brakes, quickly rounding a corner and heading towards traffic. With a second lane opening up, I slammed them. Warm tires chattered across the rough, slightly downhill road and I was forced to take the other lane or eat SUV. I felt the weight, and expected the car to stop shorter.

But here's something to chew on. I have no conclusive data of how fast we were going, given the single-gear, quiet propulsion of the vehicle. I could have been going 35, I could have been going 60, so it's not fair to judge the car's handling or braking. And neither Tesla nor the internet have any skidpad, slalom or braking distance test results for the car. Conspiracy? I can't say. None of this really matters. The Tesla Roadster is unique as a performance-oriented electric car and deserves heaps of praise for what it is. Its efficiency from battery to wheels hovers between 80% and 90%. Most gas engines sit at about 20%. Provided your public utility has some measure of efficiency in their electric production, you can do a lot of good in this car.

I wouldn't be describing this car properly without discussing the interior. The Roadster's insides look similar to its sister cars from the UK, but have been improved. Door sills have been lowered to make entrance easy (although still requiring some level of acrobatics), the leather seats are more comfortable and heated, and the premium stereo is a single-DIN JVC KD-NX5000 which features DivX and DVD playback as well as navigation, a 40GB HDD and an iPod dock. The position of the stereo is sort of low on the dashboard. The stereo's imaging is superb and there's a sub somewhere in the tiny cockpit thumping away. There's an electric touch LCD on the left managing battery charge, tire pressure monitors, etc. Your ass is dragging probably 8 inches from the ground.

I can't afford this car. If I wanted something similar to this in shape, feel and performance, I'd probably buy a used Elise for $30K, if I could get over the bug eyes. But I can assure you that a Tesla is still a hell of a car, by electric or gas terms, even if it's just a bit more portly and more expensive than a comparable Lotus. I mean, it's fast. It's electric. It's efficient. It's sexy. And you can actually buy it if you're rich. And while Tesla as a company may have had some problems in manufacturing at first, they didn't wait for old industry to get off its ass and build something revolutionary. Like Google's Android challenges the cellphone establishment, I hope the Roadster catalyzes the traditional fossil-fuel-dependent makers into a game of catchup, with cars that are just as fast and efficient, and hopefully a lot cheaper. And if that doesn't leave you somewhat impressed, then you belong with the dinosaurs.

Note: Impressions from a 10 minute drive are going to be impressions from a 10 minute drive, nothing more.

Special thanks to Tim Ferriss for facilitating this drive and donating half of his drive time to me, and for photographer Monica Laipple for the better shots above. Check out more videos over at Tim's site.

Then again, the economy is bad and Tesla isn't exactly raking in piles of cash. We understand downsizing if it keeps the business afloat. But sometimes it's not what you say but how you say it. Tesla fired notified the employees their office was closing down through a cryptic post on their blog, and fired them two days later in person.

There will also be some headcount reduction due to consolidation of operations. In anticipation of moving vehicle engineering to our new HQ in San Jose, we are ramping down and will close our Rochester Hills office near Detroit. Good communication, tightly knit engineering and a common company culture are of paramount importance as Tesla grows.

Many Detroit employees, failing to read between the lines, went to work and logged into their computers only to find themselves fired.

Keep it classy, Tesla!

UPDATE: Tesla writes to say that the employees weren't fired, but were only notified that their office was closing by the blog post. It stands to reason that if you don't have an office to work in anymore, there's a good chance that your job is also in questionable standing. They also admit that the blog post announcing the closing of the detroit office was a mistake. Best of luck to the company that's helping to bring back the EV. [jalopnik]

After using a meter to track power usage, Eberhard calculated that 22% of his car's juice was being wasted while parked. He also notes that this constant activity causes significant wear and tear on the pump—most likely diminishing its useful life by about 2 years or 20,000 miles. Eberhard is no longer with Tesla Motors, but when he speaks, his former colleagues should listen up and get the problem fixed. [Teslafounders]

If you're one of the 27 people who already own a Roadster, Tesla will be offering a free retrofit come next month. Now that the gearbox is all figured out, the company expects to start producing 10 new Roadsters every week, ramping up to 40 per week by early 2009. [NextAutos via Jalopnik]

For your money, you'll be getting one of the fastest all electric vehicles around. The 2009MY can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, has a top speed of 125 mph, and can go 227 miles on a 3.5 hour charge. If you're especially opulent, you can add sweet extras like a painted carbon fiber top for $3,200 or a premium leather interior for $1,800.

Want to think a little more before you let this sweet lil' ride burn a hole through your bank account? Here's a couple of reviews to help you make your decision. Or if you're in California, scuttle over to their dealership in LA. [Tesla Motors]

Best Product Placement - Iron Man
The Iron Man movie looks better with every second we see. But did the product placement pass you by? Keep your eyes peeled in the garage scene—Iron Man drives a Tesla Roadster. It's a nice car...but the guy can fly.

Best Lost Cause - HD DVD
This lame commercial plugging "what you watch after the game" was tossed in at the last moment. It's not even worth watching again, but here it is anyway.

Best High Concept - Audi R8 (Old Luxury)
Taking a lesson from The Godfather, a man wakes with an old (Bentley?) front end in his bed. Blood has been replaced with oil, and our longing with the R8.
Audi R8 Luxury Sports Car Super Bowl Commercial Ad

Best Laugh - ETrade.com (Clown Version Sequel)
The first baby stockbroker we met was kinda lame. But then we realized that the first ETrade commercial of the night was just a setup for a great payoff.
ETrade.com

Worst Punchline - Garmin
Little car, little military leader, little horse...and what about the GPS? Is it little or something?

Best Non-Commercial Commercial Moment - Football Terminated
You know that stupid Fox robo football player they've had for a few years as part of their graphics package? On three occasions, the Terminator came in and beat the shit out of him. And damn, it was fulfilling.

Strangest Cross Branding - Ford (regional commercial)
Ford pitches you a Fusion with a free iPhone...to use with Sync...a Microsoft product. And they use an iPod touch commercial style. Very weird. (And note: if this commercial existed before tonight, we're sorry. We use something called 'DVR' so we're a bit out of touch.)

Best Adolescent Humor - AMP Energy
There were sparking nipple clamps, I mean, c'mon.
Amp Energy

Lowest Kick To Disney's Balls - CareerBuilder.com (Follow Your Heart)
Singing crickets just don't have it as easy as they used to.
Career Builder Superbowl Commercial: Follow Your Heart

Best Overall Commercial - FedEx Pigeons
The fisheye POV shot from the carrier pigeon's enhanced eyewear sealed the deal. But GPS and nightvision can only do so much when you're a pigeon.
Fedex Super Bowl Ad: Carrier Pigeons Bad Choice for Shipping

This sort of destruction should not make us feel good, but the pictures are awesome and we can constantly hear Edward Norton's cold, monotone voice saying, "I felt like destroying something beautiful," as a slim justification. We should really speak to someone about Edward Norton's psychotic comments repeating themselves autonomously in our insane membrane regions. [Tesla via Valleywag]

The way Solar City figures it, if you have a daily commute of 40 miles, you'll require 500 square feet of solar panels on your house's roof to power the Tesla Roadster for a 40-mile commute each day. Install a 20x25-foot array of solar panels, and then you're on your way to carbon-neutral driving.

But cost is another matter. The Tesla roadster will be $100K, and though Solar City's not talking price just yet, add another, say, $10K for these panels, and energy will be about the only thing you're saving. But if you can get rebates for such things where you live, and it's always sunny there, this just might be worth it to you. [Autoblog Green, via Ecotality Life]

Not right away. It's not too late to plunk down a $50,000 deposit, which gives you the right to buy your shiny new Tesla by next July, or if you pay a $30,000 deposit, you'll be in line behind the $50,000 depositors. Oh yeah, you'll have to pay the balance on the final price of $102,900 plus any tax and delivery charges, and that breaks down to $98,000 for the car, and of course you'll want to add a $1200 navigation system, a carbon fiber hard top that matches the body color for $3200, and then there's that $500 mobile charging system. All of those options sound like necessities to us.

It does look like a great car, but we're reluctant to buy anything that's in a such a limited edition, and especially since it's version 1.0. We'd rather let others be the beta testers for this fire-breathing electro-rocket. [Mercury News]

Not a huge deal, but you've got to assume that some of those people who have agreed to drop $100,000 on a Roadster are feeling a little disappointed about this situation. Think anyone will ask for their deposit back?

Check the whole letter from Tesla after the jump.

Media Briefing - April 12, 2007 Darryl Siry VP Marketing Tesla Motors

Tesla Motors has achieved some significant milestones recently. The first of our Validation Prototypes (VPs) recently arrived in San Carlos. This car represents a significant step forward toward real production cars as it implements corrections to problems discovered in the Evaluation Prototypes (EPs), hard-tooled components for all body panels, production headlights and taillights, nearly-production interior components (including much more comfortable seats), and many other subtle changes.

We continue to test the Roadster prototypes, and recently performed our first actual driving range tests on an EPA-compliant dynamometer. Based on the results of these tests, we need to revise our initial range estimates downward. We now anticipate that the range of the Roadster will still be greater than 200 miles, but will not meet our original target of 250 miles.

Martin Eberhard, CEO, recently communicated this news to our customers, and we will continue to provide them with updates as we continue development of the Roadster. We think it is appropriate to always communicate to our customers first, and then more broadly to the media and the public.

These are the key factors for the revised expectation:
We made a significant number of design changes to maximize safety and durability of the Roadster, both in its chassis and in its battery pack. These changes added several hundred pounds to the weight to our original design.

We deliberately chose lithium ion cells with a slightly lower capacity because they have better long-term durability and higher tolerance for abuse.
I also think it is important to keep members of the media up to date on our progress to provide you with the context and background necessary for you to do your job. To that end, I am providing some additional context in this briefing.

It is important to note that at greater than 200 miles, the Tesla Roadster will still have the highest range of any production EV in history by a large margin, and we will be working hard to deliver even better range in the coming months.

The original premise of this groundbreaking car was that its range would be high enough that you would not have to worry about charging during a typical day, even if you have a long commute, take the car out for dinner and chores, or even take the scenic route home. Once home, you plug it in - just like you would your cell phone - and by the time you're ready for another day, your Tesla Roadster is fully charged and ready to go. We believe that this premise is still intact with a range above 200 miles.

Our communications strategy is intentionally conservative: we don't want to communicate any further revisions to range unless they are upward revisions. That's why we decided to say that the final EPA-certified range will be greater than 200, rather than try to communicate where we think it will actually land at the end of the day. When the final tests are performed by EPA just prior to start of production, we will communicate final numbers to customers, the press and to the public.

After extensive testing of our EPs, we are confident that we will achieve a final EPA-certified range above 200 miles. Now that we have completed cars and an understanding of the testing methodology, our future range estimates will be based on empirical testing, not simply modeled estimates. This is an important distinction that should be taken into account when comparing Tesla's estimates for range to other companies' claims. Since Tesla has undergone significant testing on our EP cars that have lead us to this revised expectation, I would suggest that these numbers cannot be compared apples to apples with range numbers that are expressed by other companies as aspirational goals or modeled estimates.

In the years that we have been working on the design and development of the Roadster, we have learned an enormous amount about the challenges of electric drivetrain development, including battery system management, power electronics and motor development. We have also learned a great deal about the challenges of developing a high quality electric vehicle for mass production. We expect that other companies in this emerging sector will also experience this steep learning curve when they move from concepts to prototypes or when they attempt to mass produce cars for the marketplace.

The original assumptions and models that lead to the claim of 250 miles were made in good faith based upon the knowledge available to us at the time and our anticipated design specifications for the Roadster (including a lower weight than what we have today.) Our customers who have reserved a car know that they are reserving a car that exists today in prototype form and that is subject to further development and validation. That is one reason that we chose to make the reservation payment fully refundable so that if customers decide to change their mind based upon how the program develops, they can give up their spot and receive a full refund.
As a leader in the field, we expect that we will often be the first to learn from experiences along the way. We plan to continue to be as transparent as we can about our progress (within reason for a company in a competitive marketplace.) That's why we have chosen to communicate this revised expectation as soon as was practical after the conclusion was known to us.

Bad news from Tesla: Original range target won't be met! [Autoblog Green]
Tesla Motors [Jalopnik]