Tesla Motors, the young, Silicon Valley based electric automobile manufacturing company has begun delivering it’s flagship product; the Tesla Roadster.

The Tesla Roadster is a sharp-looking sports car, similar in looks and dimension to the world-famous British Lotus Elise. This is no coincidence as Lotus reportedly had a hand in the design of the Tesla Roadster and indeed, the Roadster shares some components with the Elise. The Tesla Roadster’s chassis is made in Norway and final assembly takes place at Lotus’ Hethel plant in the United Kingdom. The Roadster’s drivetrain is entirely battery-electric utilising a 53kWh lithium-ion battery pack and a 3-phase, 4-pole AC induction motor.

That may not mean much to those who haven’t been following the development of battery electric vehicles (EVs/BEVs) but it translates into an all-out sports car that can get from 0-60mph in 3.7 seconds and arrive at an electronically limited 125mph only moments later. The electric motor, unlike it’s internal-combustion counterparts delivers peak torque of 200lbf from zero rpm all the way up to 6,000rpm and produces a net 248bhp.

The whole package weighs around 1,220kg, almost twice that of a Lotus Elise but still surprisingly lightweight for a battery powered car. The weight shouldn’t be issue for the Tesla Roadster’s constantly available peak-torque to overcome.

Another impressive feature is the Tesla Roadster’s range. If you don’t drive everywhere at wide-open-throttle, you should have a range of 220 miles. As the Tesla has it’s own inverter-integrated charger, you should be able to recharge from the mains on arrival at your destination.

The news today is that Tesla are now delivering the Roadster to customers in California at the rate of 4 per week so this is a real, bona-fide production car.

Finally, FT.com reported earlier this year that Tesla plan to sell cars in Europe from the third quarter of 2008 initially at a price point of EUR100,000

Russia has stated they will react with ‘military means’ if the proposed US-Czech anti ballistic missile system is deployed in the Czech Republic.

The USA made an initial agreement with the Czech Republic today over siting of the system which Russia believes will undermine their own balistic missile capabilities. The official US line is that the ABM system is designed solely for interception of launches from ‘rogue states’ (probably Middle Eastern states or perhaps specifically Iran).

A Russian foreign ministry statement said:

“we will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods,”

Russia isn’t specifying but I’m hoping when they say they will respond with ‘military-technical methods’ they are implying they would use ‘Electronic Attack’ or radar jamming rather than rolling the Russian military machine into Prague. It seems clear that the Russian line is they will not be interested in any more diplomacy on the matter once an ABM system is deployed.

I don’t think it’s the greatest idea to antagonise Russia as they’re just about as strategically paranoid as everyone else who played a part in the cold war and are now left wondering exactly where they stand. Russia already offered to allow stationing of an ABM system on their own soil and this was turned down which undoubtedly worried them even more.

It’s certainly true that the system proposed for the Czech Republic would be far too small to block a Russian strategic launch in any meaningful way but Russia may be seeing this as the ‘thin end of the wedge’ in terms of US and future NATO plans for ABM systems.

According to FT.com, the Russian government have signed off on plans to increase fuel prices which would ultimately see the wholesale price of Russia’s natural gas product increase by 28 percent a year.

Russia’s Gazprom supplies the European Union with around 25% of it’s natural gas supplies.