The Tesla Roadster is built on top of a Lotus Elise.  Tesla imports the Elise and then modifies to a great extent to make the Roadster.  As an all electric car it uses no gas and almost no oil during every day use.  It also has a lot fewer moving parts so there’s less chance of something going wrong.  The Roadster has a battery pack that will give it a 250 mile range and can recharge overnight.

The Dodge EV is built on top of a Lotus Europa.  Dodge imports the Europa and then modifies it to make the all electric Dodge EV.  It is very similar to the Roadster in the manner in how it drives, acceleration, braking, handling, etc.  According to Dodge the battery pack will let you go 200 miles before needing a recharge, 50 miles less than the Roadster.

We should also note the biggest difference is that the Roadster is already in production.  Tesla has delivered 70 of them so far and has over 1200 people on the waiting list.  Right now they can produce 10 a week but that is expected to double in 2009.  Notably Jay Leno, George Clooney, and the Governator have all bought a Roadster.

Assuming Chrysler makes it through the next 18 months (big assumption right now) the Dodge EV could very well be their first production vehicle.  Chrysler intends to have one in production by the end of 2010.  The low volume and prebuilt chassis make the Dodge EV a prime suspect for the first ENVI production vehicle.  My guess at the price would be in the 90k range, undercutting Tesla by 20 thousand.

Competition is good, but I hope that the Dodge EV doesn’t hurt Tesla’s sales.  They are, after all, the first new American car company in a long time and they’re building cars that will help us get off of oil.  Good luck to both.

Tesla Model S

It’s called the model S, and it’s going to compete with the Volt.  Although, with it’s $60,000 price tag maybe it won’t compete with the Volt all that much.  Billed as a luxury sedan, the Model S seats 5 people (the Volt only seats 4).  It’s price tag will put it still well out of range for most consumers.  GM is hoping that the $7,500 tax credit will entice enough buyers to consider the Volt at a mid 30s price range.

The model S will be built entirely in San Jose, unlike the Roadster, it will not be based on any prior car design.  The $109,000 Roadster is built on top of a Lotus Elise with some slight modifications to the body.  The new Model S will originate from the ground up at the new facility.  With the capability to travel 240 miles per charge the Model S is going to have to compete with the likes of Mercedes and BMW for car buyers.  Right now isn’t the most opportune time to be selling a luxury car, but the new Tesla won’t go on sale until 2010 (about the same time as the Volt) and who knows what the market will look like then.