Today you may have noticed a new button on our homepage – the Broadband Plan Selector. This is a new tool we’ve developed to help make choosing a broadband plan easier.

By answering a few simple questions (your phone number, how you use the internet, the type of connection you’re looking for, etc), we’ll recommend the best plan for you.

The launch of the Broadband Plan Selector follows some other things we’ve done recently to simplify the decision making process when considering a broadband plan. Earlier this year, we launched Internode Easy Broadband, a new type of plan with a single monthly price ($49.95 per month) and quota (50 Gigabytes), where we simply give you the best speed we can. We’ve since followed up Easy Broadband with Easy Naked. And in October 2009 we cut down the number of plans available when we released our new broadband plans.

We have further enhancements planned for the Broadband Plan Selector, so if you have any suggestions please contact us.

Give the Broadband Plan Selector a go now!

Internode Tesla Roadster at a petrol station in Adelaide on the last event day

How would you like your car to achieve the equivalent of 1.6 Litres per 100 km (US 150 MPG)?

Would you like to do that while paying between AUS$69 and AUS$126 for your energy costs (including a surcharge to buy 100% GreenPower), to take you 3147 kilometres from the top of Australia to the bottom?

(or to put it another way: between 2.2 and 4 cents per km over that entire distance using GreenPower)?

We’ve just demonstrated that its possible – if the car is a pure electric vehicle.

Here are the results we’ve achieved for the 2009 Global Green Challenge ‘Eco Challenge’ event – in a downloadable table that you can find here:

tesla-roadster-ggc-2009-results

The structure of the inaugural Global Green Challenge ‘Eco Challenge’ event was unable to fully accommodate the realities of what was needed to drive this car through every one of the often very long event stages.

On the ’shorter’ (< 400 km) stages, the Roadster mixed it with all other cars without compromise; We drove the same distance in the same time, at the same speeds, meeting all criteria for being scored fully on that stage.

However, on longer stages (some approaching 700 kms), we had to stop to recharge the car once or twice (depending on stage length), and the event rules this year then meant that those delays took us over the maximum allowable elapsed time to complete the stage.

Had recharge time been subtracted, we would have easily met all other scoring criteria for all stages, including achieving the required minimum speeds.

Because this is an economy event, most competitors arrived exactly at the nominated maximum time for a given event stage, to minimise their average speed and hence maximise their demonstrated efficiency.

(Aside: The upcoming Tesla Model S will feature a rapid charge option (as little as 45 minutes). Both the Model S and upcoming vehicles from other manufacturers, such as the Renault vehicles to be deployed by Better Place Australia  will also be able to convert ‘recharge’ time into a rapid battery swap where required. Perhaps we’re only a few years away from the recharge time ceasing to be an issue for EV’s)

Because of these challenges specific to EV’s in this inaugural ‘Eco Challenge’ event, we received no official score in the formal event results – which are designed to assess litres per 100 km of petrol or diesel, and not Kilowatt Hours.

Our table (above) shows the real achieved performance of the vehicle over more than 3100 km’s, in conditions that were often hot (41 Celcius) and windy at times.

The official finish in Victoria Square, Adelaide

Note that the performance in the Adelaide Urban Cycle is better than the highway numbers. This is normal for EV’s – and an indication of just how suitable they are for the majority of people who live in urban environments, where there is simply no issue about wasted fuel at low speeds or when waiting at traffic lights.

We feel that we have tested the Roadster in a very harsh environment indeed – and in that environment, it has come through with flying colours. We couldn’t be happier about the results of our efforts.

Naturally, we’ve learned a great deal in the process of participating in this event.

We’ll apply what we’ve learned ‘next time’ and see if we can do even better!

Its got everything else but... no cup holder

The Roadster is an awesome sports car. Zero to 100 km/h in 3.9 seconds. Huge range. Looks fabulous.

But its not perfect… there are no cup holders :)

(Edit: A reader kindly pointed out to me that I was wrong – there is indeed a (single) cup holder in my car. It is cunningly hidden under the traction control button! So there’s a victory for RTFM! – something my reader did, and that I, clearly, did not :) )