The Tesla is undeniably, unbelievably efficient: Given its miniscule ration of "electric" fuel on board and its 220-mile, combined-cycle range (recently reduced due to a subcontractor's miscalculation), the Roadster delivers roughly 105 miles per electric gallon. Assuming that electricity is (optimistically) sourced from a highly efficient combined-cycle, natural-gas-fired powerplant (which Tesla claims can provide an efficiency of 52.5 percent from well to outlet), the Roadster's gasoline-equivalent well-to-wheel mileage works out to something like 55 mpg. That's roughly 1.5 times (or higher, by Tesla's calculations) that of the Prius, the green standard of current automobiles. By the way, there's little cause to fret about laptop-scenario battery infernos, either-the battery is liquid-cooled by the same refrigerant used by the air-conditioner; all those cells are bathed in a total of 27 square meters of surface-area to squelch any troublemaking hot-spots.
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