Tesla Roadster makes big-buck Aussie debut

Tesla has announced the arrival of its all electric sportster Down Under. But to roll with the likes of George Cloooney, you'll need a cool $250k plus for the car in RHD form and fully approved by local authorities for mainstream Australian registration and road use. In fact, you could be looking at up to $300K, depending on spec.

For that, you get what Tesla likes to call the world's only electric supercar -- a hand-made, Lotus Elise-based two seater with body panels fashioned from carbon fibre and a mid-mounted electric drivetrain and power pack in place of the Elise's 1.8-litre Toyota engine. The company claims supercar performance of sub-4 second 0-100km/h acceleration and a range of up to 380 km -- although it's London to a brick that too much of the former will severely compromise the latter. But before we get too sceptical about that, it's worth noting that Queensland entrepreneur Simon Hackett, who imported a Roadster (pictured here in red) privately in 2008, extracted no less than 501 km from a single charge in last year's Global Green Challenge.

EVs deliver advantages outside of the visible zero-emissions and upfront torque delivery that grabs most of the headlines, too -- something that hasn't passed by Tesla's marketing people. Oil changes, for example, are a thing of the past for Tesla owners, as are wear-and-tear based issues with things like pistons, heat-ravaged exhaust systems and ignition systems.

This has allowed the company to offer buyers a house-call service, through which technicians known as Tesla Rangers, come to you for scheduled checkups, firmware updates and repair work.

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