Tesla Motors has confirmed it will be upgrading the Tesla Roadster with a new battery, increasing the electric cars range to over 400 miles on a single charge.
The Tesla Roadster was originally launched in 2008 and was one of the earliest electric cars to be manufactured.
With its new and improved driving range, the Roaster 3.0 will be capable of driving continuously on a full charge “from San Francisco to Los Angeles”, a feat Tesla will hope to achieve in early 2015.
Tesla have applied technology and efficiencies it developed for the company’s latest electric vehicle, the Model S, to the Roadster in order to achieve such an impressive range.
“The original Roadster battery was the very first lithium ion battery put into production in any vehicle,” said a Tesla spokesperson. “It was state of the art in 2008, but cell technology has improved substantially since then.
“We have identified a new cell that has 31 per cent more energy than the original Roadster cell.
“We can achieve a predicted 40-50 per cent improvement on range between the original Roadster and Roadster 3.0,” explained the spokesperson. “We have long been excited to apply our learning back to our first vehicle, and are thrilled to do just that with the prototype Roadster 3.0 package.”
Other improvements include a kit for reducing wind resistance and newly designed tires and wheel bearings, which both have been designed to cut the amount of energy that is lost when the cars tires are rolling.
Tesla say the new battery pack will be available to the public once it completes safety testing in spring 2015.
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