

It's been a crazy few months at Tesla Motors, what with all those heads rolling and transmissions failing, but the company says it absolutely, positively will begin building the all-electric Roadster on March 17.

Tesla still hasn't gotten the transmission sorted out, so the first run will use an "interim" unit that, although robust enough to do the job, cuts the car's zero-to-60 time from 4.0 seconds to 5.7. That's a 42 percent drop - nothing to sneeze at when you're forking over $98,000 for a high-performance sports car.

Just how many cars will feature the temporary fix remains to be seen, but Tesla says its engineers have finally solved the transmission problem and later models will deliver on the 4-second promise. Tesla calls it DriveTrain 1.5.

So what's that mean for people who get cars with the Band-Aid?

Tesla is promising to retrofit earlier cars at no cost once it's sure DriveTrain 1.5 works. Those who get a Roadster early will find themselves getting a substantial boost in performance some time down the line.



The first two transmissions Tesla tried proved unreliable, and apparently the tranny in the car Motor Trend praised in its road test is only good for a few thousand miles. Tesla has decided to abandon the complex two-speed gearbox originally slated for the car. Instead, it has developed a one-speed transmission and improved power electronics module that sends more current to the motor, allowing it to produce more peak power. The company says the new design is lighter, more efficient and offers improved thermal performance and quarter-mile acceleration.

It's not an easy fix. The motor must be modified to improve its cooling capacity, and AutoblogGreen reports that Tesla is ditching the air-cooled motor in favor of a liquid-cooled one. Road testing of DriveTrain 1.5 could begin as early as next week.

Coincidentally, that's when the first production Tesla Roadster, dubbed P1, will be delivered to Elon Musk, the company's chairman. The company has cleared all the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation hurdles and says it will start building cars in England on March 17. Production will start slowly and ramp up through the summer once DriveTrain 1.5 is ready to go.

Loads more pictures of the car we named Car of the Year can be found here.