The Tesla Roadster is an eco friendly alternative to your standard sports car. It is eco friendly because it runs on electricity rather than petrol whilst still providing the performance you would expect to see from a petrol car. By using electricity it still has an effect of the environment though as that power has to be retrieved from alternate energy sources.

People looking to reduce their carbon footprint whilst still enjoying a great drive are the target buyers for this product. However it still draws electricity from our world’s power plants. I believe there is room for improvement. By supplying electricity from a greener source the car should be easier to sell to its market. This can be done with solar panels on the roof and bonnet of the car. In America as well where the majority of these cars are sold this is a great option as weather conditions are a lot better than in the UK.

With the car built to charge whilst parked up you would not need to be plugging it in all the time, saving effort whilst also saving our fossil fuels. Other benefits would include a longer battery life whilst driving as the vehicle could potentially charge up whilst in use.

The Tesla at peak power draws 200kW (Berdichevsky, Kelty, Straubel, & Toomre, 2006) from it’s batteries. This cannot be fully powered by todays solar panels as even a £400 (Sunshine Solar, 2009) panel only provides 80W, and that is presuming it is a sunny day. However by dual powering the car we still reduce the environmental effect indirectly on the environment as the electric grid would not be required for as long. The exact amount for this is uncertain and as briefly mentioned depends on weather conditions. But a little bit is better than nothing at all.

Construction of the Roadster is primarily done at the Lotus factory in Hethel however the car is shipped then to California to have the battery and power train fitted. The 6831 lithium ion cells (Clarkson & Klein, 2008), get shipped from Japan to California where they are put together to make the battery for the Roadster. The cost, time and impact on the environment of using ships to transport the car and its parts around could be reduced by building the whole car where the majority of orders are taking place; around California, USA.

Ships are by no means friendly to our world (Howden, 2007). They are also one of the slowest ways to transport goods around. By building the car in California where they finalise the car anyway, a lot of cost could be dropped. As bits from the car are sourced from Hethel (the car uses some parts from the Lotus Elise), this could be a much smaller package to send and more compressed to save space on a boat compared to rolling a nearly built car on. The facilitles to make the cells for the car do lie in Japan, however if new facilitles could be built in California there is time, cost and the environment to be saved.


Berdichevsky, G., Kelty, K., Straubel, J., & Toomre, E. (2006). The Tesla Roadster Battery System. Tesla Motors , 1-5.

Clarkson, J. (Presenter), & Klein, B. (Director). (2008). The One With The Electric Cars [Television series episode]. In A. Wilman (Producer), Top Gear. Dunsfold Park: BBC2 Retrieved May 22, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG3bMKR5eXk

Howden, D. (2007, October 10). Shipping pollution 'far more damaging than flying'. Retrieved May 22, 2009, from The Independant: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/shipping-pollution-far-more-damaging-than-flying-396455.html

Sunshine Solar. (2009). Sunshine fastFIX 80W Power Kit. Retrieved May 22, 2009, from Sunshine Solar: http://www.sunshinesolar.co.uk/khxc/index.php?app=gbu0&ns=prodshow&ref=FF80W&sid=xgfu277g1082o8gee6987kh3217b04h1