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At Tesla we're proud of our Roadster. "Fergus247" put it best in his comment about our recent video, "Imagine if all car companies loved their products this much. Hell, imagine if everyone producing some kind of product loves it like Tesla loves theirs." It's true. I look forward to driving one of our cars every chance I get, and get a thrill every time I'm behind the wheel. I think everyone who can should be driving a Roadster. It's a feeling all of us share at Tesla. So you could say we're biased. That's where car critics come in.

For 20+ years, Eric has lived his dream in the Visual Effects industry. It wasn't until he rode in a Roadster at its Santa Monica debut that he found a new passion. Eric is co-founder of Tesla owner's Socal Greenspeed Club and thinks the future is electric.

Have you ever wondered how much the electrons that power our car weigh?

Two weeks ago, I highlighted how Tesla moved from waves to bits in our motor and charge controller in the PEM. You might have left with the impression that as of June 2007, when the DMC replaced the analog controller, our work as DMC firmware engineers was complete. Fortunately for us (this is fun, remember!), that was far from true.

Ten years ago when I was driving an EV1, one of the best perks was free parking and charging at LAX. I would pull into one of the EV parking places by Terminal One, plug in, and go on my trip. The charger would turn on right away – typically this would be in the middle of the day – and the battery pack would be fully charged even before my plane had left the ground. When I would return a few days later, typically at night, the battery pack would have partially self-discharged and was cold soaked, having sat for days with the charger connected but off.

When I last posted to this blog in May, the news was a mixed bag. Martin (Founder Martin Eberhard) had just officially revised our range expectations down from 250 miles to greater than 200 miles, but we remained committed to holding the line on 4 second 0-60 mph acceleration and delivering the Tesla Roadster with the performance, handling, looks, and safety of a world-class electric sports car. Now it is September and in the last three weeks we have completed performance and range validation testing of Validation Prototype 1 (VP1 aka “the green car”) in order to verify our Tesla Roadster performance claims. I’m extremely pleased to say that the results are in and our hard work has really paid off!

In a battery-powered electric vehicle, regenerative braking (also called regen) is the conversion of the vehicle’s kinetic energy into chemical energy stored in the battery, where it can be used later to drive the vehicle. It is braking because it also serves to slow the vehicle. It is regenerative because the energy is recaptured in the battery where it can be used again.

As you may have read in previous blogs, we recently built our first couple of Validation Prototypes (VPs). These cars represent a significant step forward toward production as they implement numerous corrections to issues discovered during safety and durability testing of the Evaluation Prototypes (EPs), are built from hard-tooled components for all body panels, include production headlights, taillights, and interior components (including much more comfortable seats), and many other subtle changes.

Stephen Casner spent 25 years working on protocols and systems for transmission of audio and video over packet networks, starting before the Internet existed and continuing through the Internet Multicast Backbone (MBONE). He was recruited to the Silicon Valley to work with startup Precept Software and its IP/TV product, which was later acquired by Cisco. He is currently a Fellow at Packet Design, working on route analytics, and waiting patiently for his Signature One Hundred number to be called.

I’ve been driving production electric vehicles since November, 1998, when I took delivery of a General Motors EV1. I lost that first-generation EV1 when it was recalled in March 2000, but two months later I was able to lease a Gen 2 EV1 with NiMH batteries. GM pried that one out of my fingers when the three-year lease was up. I managed to continue driving electric by leasing a Ford Ranger EV pickup, but again that was only for a year before it was taken back. Luckily, I was given the opportunity to lease or buy one of the last few 2003 Toyota RAV4-EVs. Given the EV1 lease experience, the choice to purchase was obvious!

Let me start off by apologizing to Dr. Robert Wilder, one of our customers who was slated to post here this week. You will hear from him next week, but today I want to comment on President Bush’s State of the Union speech.

Editor's note: Our last blog, Good Vibrations, chronicled some of the safety and durability tests we've been running on the Tesla Roadster. It prompted a number of questions, particularly related to climate control. So we convinced Brian, who is fully booked during regular business hours overseeing the tests, to postpone his holiday shopping a little longer and spend some time after work explaining in more detail how we ensure satisfying climate control in the Tesla Roadster. Here are his thoughts…

Bob Bressler is a customer of Tesla Motors and owner of Bressler Vineyards, a small producer of super-premium Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. An expert in the Internet and networking technologies, Bob’s career prior to becoming a full-time vintner spanned executive positions at Sun Microsystems, 3Com and BBN. We asked Bob to share his perspective on electric cars and the Tesla Roadster.

Why did I order a Tesla Roadster? Believe me, my wife has asked me that question many times. I guess there is no single reason – but a long list of them.

Elon and Martin both recognize the synergy between solar panels and electric cars. As Martin pointed out to Gov. Schwarzenegger, a million solar rooftops in California will not reduce California’s oil dependency by one drop unless we have electric cars also.

Many of you have asked me about several alternative technologies and why they are not used in the Tesla Roadster. These technologies range from other existing battery technologies (e.g. lithium iron phosphate) to technologies that are on the horizon (e.g. ultracapacitors) to impossible technologies that ultimately boil down to perpetual motion. I will try to address as many of these questions as I can this week.