Tesla Updates Its First Car: 'We Can Confidently Drive The Roadster 3.0 Over 400 Miles'

Tesla Motors officially unveiled an update to the Tesla Roadster, the two-seater sports car that was also the company's first car. It's Tesla's "Roadster 3.0 package." 

CEO Elon Musk hinted at the upcoming update in a tweet to a fan earlier this week, and again on Christmas Day.

In the Friday blog post, the Tesla Motors team describes how the Roadster's new "3.0 package" applies what the company learned in terms of batteries, rolling resistance, and aerodynamics.

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For example, the original Roadster was powered by a lithium-ion battery - it was the first time that had been put into production for any vehicle. But thanks to new cell technology, Tesla's new battery pack for the Roadster delivers about 70kWh in the same size pack - 31% more energy than the original Roadster cell.

Mind you, the original Roadster had about a 245-mile range. With this new battery, the Tesla says "we can confidently drive the Roadster 3.0 over 400 miles." 

Tesla says it will be demonstrating its new-and-improved range "during a non-stop drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the early weeks of 2015."

To get such an improvement in range, Tesla also had to make the Roadster more aerodynamic. The company says it's reduced the drag coefficient to make a 15% improvement, according to the company's own math.

Tesla says it's also rolling out new tires that are 20% improved. With all of these improvements, Tesla says the new Roadster can achieve a "40-50% improvement on range" over the original Roadster.

Unfortunately, Tesla has no new battery enhancements to announce for the Model S.