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Tesla's Competition

I am surprised that the Tesla marketers and engineers are ignoring, for now, a very significant part of the automobile market, namely those customers that need a 4 wheel drive vehicle or an all wheel drive vehicle for a good part of the year. Subaru, Mercedes, Audi, Volvo, and others offer an all wheel drive vehicle and many more offer a selectable four wheel drive vehicle. I hope, in the future, Tesla decides to market an all wheel electric drive vehicle. It can be, and has been done. One system, on the Japanese experimental vehicle Eliica, has an individual motor on each wheel and power to the motors is controlled by a computer, depending on the traction available at each wheel. The Eliica has eight wheels, is very expensive, and is totally impractical, but it shows that the technology for an all wheel drive electric car does exist. Until Tesla decides to market an all wheel drive vehicle, I will probably stay with my all wheel drive and 4 wheel drive vehicles.

Not this BS again.

I dont' know of any EV sports car on sale with all-wheel drive. The Audi e-Tron prototype and Mercedes AMG e-cell feature electric AWD. Audi plans to sell a rear wheel drive version. Mercedes plans to start sales in 2013. Prices are not known yet but will be in the $150k upwards region.
I think Tesla is not ignoring the competitors but beating them.
For those that need AWD, be it a sports car or not, they just have to wait until Tesla is a volume manufacturer with the financial and engineering resources to support a wide variety of different cars.

For the last time, IT'S ON THEIR TO DO LIST.

For the love of sanity, Tesla has FINITE RESOURCES and can't do everything at once! They needed to show that EVs worked; the Roadster proved that. Next, Tesla has to prove to the world that they can mass produce their cars in a quick and reliable fashion; the Model S should do that (we will see, and I have confidence that they will). ONCE THOSE TWO STEPS ARE ACCOMPLISHED, THEN TESLA CAN START ON THE EXTRAS. NOT BEFORE, NO MATTER HOW MUCH PEOPLE WHINE ABOUT NEEDING AWD (which you don't, by the way).

I live in Ketchum, idaho and I need -not want but need- a front-wheel drive automobile for our snowy winters. All-wheel drive is better, but only incrementally. Front-wheel drive moves through snow much better than RWD and with a set of studless snow tires, even a Roadster will do well enough in winter with its refined traction software, but a FWD car will do even better.
I hear Vawikus' and VolkerP's arguments and I don't disagree, but I also know the pain of bringing a warm-weather car to snowy climes. FWD is simply better on snow and ice, particularly if the motor is over those wheels.
A question more interesting to me is whether Tesla will offer one of the several types of heads-up displays in the Model S. It will make travel markedly safer.

Newsflash: the motor in the Roadster and S is over the rear wheels. All 120 lbs of it.

@Gary, I thought so too (only AWD) living up here in Canada...with the Roadster's traction control, you don't need it...I don't think you will in the Model S either...winter 2011, head to a Tesla store & take a Roadster for a test drive in the'll be amazed...

I fully agree that an AWD version for Tesla should be far down on the list. I have had a variety of cars, none of which had 4WD and I wish I had a $1 for every AWD car I have had to go around. In the Roadster with a lot of weight over the rear wheels traction is NOT an issue. Keep good tires on the car, possibly snow tires if you live in the far north and you will do fine.

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