Tesla Roadster

Jay Leno has a massive collection of fuel-guzzling supercars, but his taste for power and speed mean he's also keen on the electric hypercars of tomorrow. In the latest instalment of Jay Leno's Garage, the TV personality swaps out of a first-generation Tesla Roadster into the new Model 3 and the wild second-gen Roadster. Guiding him through both models in the company's chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, who also gives Leno a sample of the new Roadster's brutal acceleration.

Tesla has pulled an old school 'surprise reveal' today, wheeling out a second iteration of the Roadster that originally made the company's name. We thought we were just going to be watching the web reveal of its new electric truck... Clearly Tesla and its charismatic founder Elon Musk enjoy creating distractive (or disruptive?) shock and awe, and especially so when the company is striving to get Model 3 production running at an ideal rate, and make money.

A new-generation Tesla Roadster will launch before the end of the decade with acceleration to rival the world’s quickest performance cars. Buried in a press release about the upgraded 2016 Tesla Model S and its new ‘Ludicrous’ drive mode is confirmation of the forthcoming convertible sports car, which the California-based electric car company promises will be even more hardcore than its sub-3.0 second 0-100km/h super sedan.

A 2011 Tesla Roadster 2.5 set out this morning to break a record for the longest road trip by an electric vehicle in Australia. The Roadster will travel 3000km from Melbourne to Brisbane between today and March 30. Tesla’s ‘Oz Goes Electric’ promotional tour will give people a chance to see the Roadster up-close, following the electric supercar company’s official Australian launch in January.

UPDATED May 21 11am Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has formed a partnership with Toyota to build an all-new electric sedan in California. In the deal, Toyota will invest $US50 million in the Silicon Valley-based brand, while Tesla will acquire the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc (NUMMI) factory for production of the Model S.