Separated at Birth: Lotus Elise and Tesla EV Roadster
The supra geniuses over at Sili Valley's Tesla motors have been unquick to admit their hot new EV is really a Lotus Elise in drag. The Tesla is so Elise on the inside it hurts, from the dash binnacle to the air vents to the steering wheel -- right down to the parking brake handle...
Sources familiar with Tesla say it is customizing the chassis of the sporty Lotus Elise. Tesla has hired employees from design firm IDEO to enhance aesthetics. http://www.businessweek...983077.htm
UPDATE
Instead of creating an entire car and all its systems from scratch, Tesla took advantage of outsourcing, the company chose a design from England-based Lotus.
The Tesla-Lotus partnership works well for several reasons. Lotus' Hethel, England facility is well suited to producing cars in small runs. This allows Tesla to basically manufacture cars to order, rather than building thousands and spending money to warehouse the overstock. Also, the Tesla Roadster is based on the Lotus Elise -- they look superficially similar and have the same basic chassis and other parts. This added to the savings. While most of the Roadster's parts and systems, such as the stereo, the brakes and the battery chargers are off-the-shelf, final assembly happens at Lotus facilities. http://auto.howstuffwor...
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