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Electric Miata smokes Tesla Model S at the track

Yes, folks, you read that headline right. A souped up battery-electric version of a Mazda Miata took down a Tesla Model S on a quarter-mile drag strip. And it wasn't even close. Road Test TV was kind enough to post a video of a forest-green Miata (and its very stoked driver) doing a quarter-mile run in a rather brisk 9.27 seconds, beating the Model S sedan by a whopping 3.5 seconds in the process. And the Mazda crossed the finish line moving at 142 miles per hour, or 40 miles per hour faster than the Tesla was going when it finished the race. It's a good thing for the Tesla owner that they weren't racing for pink slips. Granted, the comparison is probably an unfair one because the Tesla was a stock, production vehicle (the P85 Performance model, but still), whereas who knows how the Miata was juiced up and how much cash it took to do the job. It's sort of like putting, say, an automotive writer against Usain Bolt because we ate the same breakfast and share 99 percent of our DNA. Still, the video does lend a certain credence to the idea that a battery-electric, super-light, rear-wheel-drive Miata would be a lot of fun, or at least a heck of lot more fun than any other Mazda out there. We're just sayin'. Check out the 100-second video below, and remember not to blink. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Recharge Wrap-up: Tesla is for Mistresses; Yo, free Smart ED rides!

Smart used the Yo app to give free test rides to San Franciscans last week. Yo is a free app wherein users tap a username to send a notification that simply says "Yo" to the recipient. Signs at locations in the Mission and SoMa neighborhoods gave instructions to send a Yo to SmartUSA for a free ride anywhere in the city. Three of the eight Smart vehicles used for the promotion were the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive. The event allowed people to see how well suited the cars are to the city, particularly when it comes to San Francisco's parking problems. It also saved users the fare of an Uber or Lyft hire. Read more at TechCrunch. Zipcar has added the 2014 Honda Fit EV to its UC Davis fleet near Sacramento, California. The cars will go to the school's West Village, a planned zero net energy community, which plans to generate as much energy as it uses within a year. "Innovations like solar power to help generate the electricity needed to charge the EV," says Dan Sperling, founding director of the school's Institute of Transportation Studies, "and fully zero emission car sharing moves us aggressively toward a sustainable future." The addition of the Fit EVs will also give cash-strapped students access to affordable emissions-free driving. Read more in the press release, below. California is one step closer to adding 15,000 new green HOV stickers after a bill was approved by the state Senate. Now the bill must go up before the California State Assembly for approval before it can be signed by Governor Jerry Brown. The bill will raise the total number of the green HOV stickers for plug-in hybrids to 70,000. Raising the cap on the green decals, which allow owners use of the carpool lanes, could encourage more California drivers to buy a PHEV. Read more at Inside EVs. The Tesla Model S made a star appearance on the ABC television show Mistresses. In the episode "Choices," the character Joss receives the car as a gift from her fiance, but is not all too happy about it, seeing it as putting her in a position of dependency. "I could never in a million years afford that Tesla," Joss complains to her friend. "How am I ever supposed to get mad at him when he can hold a Tesla over my head?" The luxury EV makes an on-screen appearance in the episode complete with an interior shot of the car's touchscreen display. See a clip from the episode below or read more at Green Car Reports. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences.

Tesla adds free titanium underbody shields to Model S to prevent fires

Following a garage fire incident with a Model S EV last year, Tesla Motors quickly sent out an over-the-air software update to adjust how the car charges. Following two on-road fires caused by road debris that struck the underside of different Model S EVs (one in Washington State and the other in Tennessee), Tesla basically said, that it was a random thing, and the car is perfectly safe. The company later sent out a software update to have the car ride a bit higher at highway speeds. Today, Tesla is offering a more substantial solution. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that all Model S EVs built since March 6 have a stronger triple underbody shield that should "bring this [fire] risk down to virtually zero." The company conducted 152 tests using, "every worst case debris impact we can think of, including hardened steel structures set in the ideal position for a piking event, essentially equivalent to driving a car at highway speed into a steel spear braced on the tarmac" and is now confident that there's basically nothing that can break through the new barriers. As you can see here, the shields prevent a concrete block, a three ball tow hitch and a steel alternator from puncturing the car's underside. The new shields should "bring this [fire] risk down to virtually zero." Any Model S owner who wants the new triple shield can ask for it, and even if they don't ask, the structure will be installed whenever the car is next in for service. The three layers of the shield include a rounded, hollow aluminum bar, a titanium plate and "a shallow angle, solid aluminum extrusion." The new shields, "only have a 0.1 percent impact on range and don't affect ride or handling," Musk writes, which means there's no reason for Model S owners not to get the upgrade. You can read all of Musk's explanation below. Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S By Elon Musk, Chairman, Product Architect & CEO In 2013, two extremely unusual Model S collisions resulted in underbody damage that led to car fires. These incidents, unfortunately, received more national headlines than the other 200,000 gasoline car fires that happened last year in North America alone. In both cases, the occupants walked away unharmed, thanks to the car's safety features. The onboard computer warned the occupants to exit the vehicles, which they did well before any fire was noticeable.