Tesla Roadster goes 313 miles at Global Green Challenge in Australia

If you’re one of the 900 Tesla Roadster owners out there you have to live with a very hard choice – you can either drive efficiently and show off how many miles you traveled on a single charge or you can throw the efficiency part out of the window and show off how you can go from 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds.

Owner Simon Hackett decided to go with the first when he drove a total of 313 miles in his Tesla Roadster with his co-driver Emilis Prelgauskas during the 10th annual Global Green Challenge in Australia. The distance appears to have set a new record for a production electric-vehicle.

At the end of their trip from Alice Springs to Coober Pedy, Hackett’s Tesla still had 3 miles left on the charge.

Check out the press release after the jump for more details.

Tesla Roadster Travels 313 Miles in 10 Annual Global Green Challenge:

Press Release:

Tesla Roadster Travels 313 Miles on a Single Charge

Competing in Australia”s Global Green Challenge, Customer Simon Hackett”s red Roadster goes from Alice Springs to Coober Pedy with 3 miles left on the charge.

Coober Pedy, South Australia – (Oct. 27, 2009) ““ Tesla Roadster owner Simon Hackett and co-driver Emilis Prelgauskas completed 313 miles (501 km) in a Tesla Roadster on a single charge ““ a distance that appears to set a new record for a production electric vehicle.

Hackett and Prelgauskas are driving Hackett”s red 2008 Roadster as part of the 10th annual Global Green Challenge, one of the most high-profile rallies worldwide for production, prototype and experimental cars. Hackett is providing updates in real time on his blog.

The pair drove from Alice Springs, in the Australian Northern Territory, to the finish marker at a point 183 km north of Coober Pedy, in South Australia.

The previous distance record for an electric vehicle was set in April, when another Roadster was the only vehicle to complete the entire, 241-mile Rallye Monte Carlo d’Energies Alternatives. It had an estimated 38 miles left on the charge.

The Tesla Roadster is the first production automobile to use lithium-ion battery cells and the first production EV with a range greater than 200 miles (320 km) per charge. Tesla has delivered about 900 Roadsters to customers so far.

Hackett sent Tesla the following note before going to bed last night:

“Emilis and I have decades of experience flying gliders competitively and we applied the same energy conservation techniques to our driving, with significant results! The car had about 3 miles of range left when the drive was completed. We travelled 501km on a single charge. Let that sink in for a minute.

“The security seal was applied to the charge port door when we started the journey. As this is being done as part of the Global Green Challenge, we have a full set of official verifiers here who will attest to the results and to achieving the outcome. We were followed along the journey by our support crew and a documentary film crew – so we have it on film.

“It”s late here and we have another 541k to drive (with an intermediate charge stop) tomorrow – and another two days of the event left after that. When we’re done, we will have driven over 3000 km’s in the Roadster over the course of only six days, from Darwin to Adelaide.”

– By: Kap Shah