Electric car marks dawn of another generation

Tesla hopes to sell more than a thousand of its all-electric cars by the end of this year, which is quite the ambitious plan for a vehicle that costs $109,000 U.S. But considering that it's sold more than 900 since the first roadster was delivered early last year, the company will probably do it.

Kenzie: First Toronto drive of the Tesla electric sports car

There's a lot of buzz about the little sports car right now, and no competition at all from other makers. There's already a store in England and another in Germany; the Monaco showroom opened this week.

Here in Canada, a 6,000 square-foot downtown facility is in the works for Toronto, but for now, the company operates out of a Yorkville office and offers test-drives to prospective clients in the red car with the California plate that we drove.

Be warned: Hans Ulsrud checks out the callers before handing over the keys. He doesn't want tire-kickers to abuse his baby, and especially when his baby is primarily carbon fibre and has a list price, after the performance package and options and freight and PDI, of $145,550. That's U.S. dollars, please.

Ulsrud is coy with the numbers, but says that he took two deposits on cars just last week. Customers include sports car enthusiasts and technology geeks – not to mention Toyota Prius owners who want more excitement from their vehicles.

What's the hold up with approval from Transport Canada for selling the Tesla here? Again, Ulsrud is vague on the specifics, but says it's all down to the last few bits of paper. Of course he'll say that, but the sticky stuff – the crash testing – has already been passed.

And after all, at least a couple of Teslas have already crashed (if the photos on the Internet can be believed) with no great drama.

The current Tesla is actually a second generation vehicle. Early production models had two-speed "transmissions," for fast and slow (or fast and not-so-fast), but the engineers in California have been tweaking away and came up with a motor that pulls with maximum torque at whatever speed you're driving.

I drove the Tesla out to Jim Kenzie's house and took the scenic route to get there. Both in town and on country roads, it was astonishing to just put the pedal down and feel the greatest amount of instant pull possible, without thinking about gears or waiting for the inevitable lag as the transmission shifted down.

This is the strength of the Tesla as a sports car. However, it's one thing to build a no-expense-spared sportster and quite another to transfer its technology to a more affordable vehicle with greater practicality and acceptance, as Tesla plans with its Model S sedan in the next couple of years.

"We want to put a superior product out there," says spokesperson Ricardo Reyes at head office in San Carlos, Calif.

"As the market accepts this, we're hoping that the price point will go down and demand will go up."

He likens the technology to that of cellphones and laptops, which were once prohibitively expensive but dropped in price as demand grew.

It'll be a big step to move into the mainstream, but somebody's going to do it, and it'll be soon. Most of the manufacturers are working on variations of electric cars, with some considerably closer to the market than others: the Mini-E is already on trial on British roads, and the Nissan Leaf is breathing down the coolant intakes of Chevy's Volt.

But for now, I've already marked off Nov. 23, 2009, on my calendar – the first day I drove home in a car without using a drop of gas. It was great fun, too.

Another generation has begun.

mrichardson@thestar.ca

Kenzie: First Toronto drive of the Tesla electric sports car