Nikola Tesla was one of the great innovative geniuses and forward thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries. He contributed significantly to the development of the alternating current electric supply system and invented (among many other things) the tesla coil an electrical transformer that is still widely used.
His work fell into obscurity until fairly recently when the surge of interest in projects such as electric cars (and some other more bizarre theories and fads) brought his ideas back to the forefront of technology and popular culture.
The Tesla Motor Company takes its name from the scientist and inventor and the AC motor that it uses in its vehicles is a direct descendant of tesla’s 1882 design, showing how far reaching and ahead of its time his thinking really was.
The diminution of oil stocks and the likelihood that reserves would run out in a few decades, if not sooner, prompted manufacturers to look at cars with alternative methods of propulsion to the internal combustion engine. Electric vehicles (EV) in one form or another have been around for a long time but have never been really practical for everyday use. Tesla pioneered the use of lithium-ion technology which increases the range, performance and efficiency of EVs. It is a truly innovative company which has inspired and accelerated the growth of EVs by leading the way and providing components and technology to other vehicle manufacturers to help them in their own development of EV and hybrid vehicles.
DYLAN LOVE AUG. 27, 2013, 9:31 PM 23,931 10
PRO-TESLA
Dario Cantatore/Getty Images
Elon Musk
Elon Musk is a real-life Tony Stark, and his Tesla Motors has been in the spotlight a lot lately. We think it’s deserved.
The average American pumps $2,000 worth of gas into his or her car every year, so the promise of Tesla’s vehicles gets attention from drivers feeling the pinch. These are all-electric vehicles that behave like sportscars. They›re comfortable, speedy, and stylish. Tesla cars shun gas completely and need nothing more than an electrical outlet.
The Tesla Model S can be configured to travel about 300 miles per charge. Roadside Tesla Superchargers will give a dead battery a half-charge (for 150 miles of range) in just 30 minutes.
But this car is far from the first reimagining of transportation. The road to Tesla is littered with abandoned ideas and dead batteries.
Perhaps most notable was the EV-1, an electric car that debuted in 1996 and got 70-100 miles per charge only to be discontinued by General Motors, citing lack of consumer interest. The documentary “Who Killed The Electric Car?” spends significant time looking into the murky circumstances that led the EV-1 to the chopping block, but more on that later.
Let’s take a look at innovation with electric-based transportation starting all the way back at the turn of the 20th century.
Wikimedia
There used to be a time when electric- and gas-powered cars were directly competing with each other to be kings of the road. Before the 1920s, an electric car was by no means an unusual sight.
In 1896, the Hartford Electric Light Company proposed a recharging infrastructure. People could buy a car from General Electric and exchange their battery through Hartford Electric as a means of “gassing up.”
The service ran from 1910 to 1924 and helped electric vehicle owners cover six million miles in that timeframe.
Source.
Robert Johnson
The first commercial use of an electric vehicle was seen in 1897 when brand new electric taxis took to the streets of New York City to shuttle passengers around town.
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Shutterstock
At the time, The New York Times called the electric car “ideal” because it ran cleaner, quieter, and more economically that its gas-powered counterparts. A stark contrast to some of the things the NYT has said about Tesla’s cars lately.
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Hawaii Veterans Association
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Wikimedia
The Eureeka Company manufactured 100 Kilowatts between 1959-1960, but was only able to sell 47 of them.
Despite the lag in sales, the Kilowatt was a promising electric automobile for its time. It traveled 40 miles on a charge and hit a top speed of 40 miles per hour. The improved 1960 model pushed this to 60 miles per charge and a zippy 60 mile-per-hour top speed.
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Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station, Unit 2
In the early 1990s, the California Air Resources Board lobbied in favor of more efficient cars that put our fewer emissions. During this time we saw a slew of manufacturers throw their hats into the electric-powered ring only to see them ultimately discontinued.
Wikimedia
How many cars can you name that were discontinued and ended up getting a movie made about them? That’s exactly what happened with General Motors EV-1. (“EV” stood for “electric vehicle.”)
The documentary Who Killed The Electric Car? uses the EV-1’s production cycle and ultimate discontinuation as a backdrop for investigating why we aren’t seeing an emphasis on alternative-powered vehicles. The movie hints strongly that GM killed the EV-1 for political reasons, despite consumer demand, not because of a lack of it.
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Wikimedia
They made it official – the record is registered by Guinness World Records.
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Nissan
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Green Car Reports
Tesla Motors’ Model S evokes a classy getaway car that laughs in the face of your so-called “gasoline.” With the top model tricked out, you can cover 300 miles on a single charge of its batteries. But those aren’t little bunny rabbit batteries under the hood, dear – this thing crushes it from zero to sixty in 4.2 seconds before hitting a top speed of 130 miles per hour.
HTTP://WWW.BUSINESSINSIDER.COM/TESLA-AND-THE-HISTORY-OF-ELECTRIC-CARS-2013-8?OP=1
The Internet is full of speculations and declarations about Tesla Motors and its Model S electric luxury sedan. GreenCarReports has put together a few facts that even huge Tesla Motors fans may not have known.
By John Voelcker, Guest blogger / September 19, 2013
PRO-TESLA
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk demonstrates Tesla’s battery swapping program in Hawthorne, Calif.
Coverage of the feisty startup electric-car maker from Silicon Valley attracts huge attention any time it appears.
Discussion boards, forums, videos, comment sections, and investment blogs overflow with opinions, analysis, and utterly confident (and wildly differing) pronouncements about what will happen to Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA} and its Model S electric luxury sedan.
But we’ve put together a few facts that even diehard Tesla fans may not have known.
RECOMMENDED: Think you know Tesla Motors? Take our quiz!
Test yourself to see how many you knew.
(1) Elon Musk did not start Tesla
The company was founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, although current CEO Elon Musk led the first investment round in February 2004. At that point, he joined the company’s board of directors as Chairman.
In May 2009, Eberhard sued Musk for libel and slander, among other grounds. The suit was settled out of court four months later.
(2) Tesla Motors is more than 10 years old
The company was incorporated in July 2003, but remained in stealth mode until July 2006, when it revealed the Roadster, its first production car.
Only 2,500 models of the two-seat electric sports car were built; it went on sale in limited numbers late in 2008, and production ended late in 2011.
(3) Tesla is already worth more than Fiat and three different Japanese car companies
The company’s market capitalization as of this morning ($20.9 billion) exceeds that of Mitsubishi, the perennially struggling Japanese maker, and those of Suzuki and Isuzu, both of which have withdrawn from the U.S. market altogether.
Tesla is also worth more than Fiat ($7.5 billion), which controls Chrysler but doesn›t yet own it all.
Whether Tesla is overvalued or undervalued remains a topic for passionate, lengthy, intense, vocal, highly opinionated discussion on many, many sites.
(4) Only six parts on a Tesla Model S need regular replacement
They’re the four tires and the two wiper blades. Oh, and service technicians do check the level of the battery and motor coolant occasionally.
Brake pads? Not so much. With the bulk of its stopping done via regenerative braking--turning the electric motor into a generator to recharge the battery pack--the brakes pads on a Tesla last a ridiculously long time.
Without valves, camshafts, connecting rods, a crankshaft, gears, clutches, or any of the other complexities of a car with an engine and a transmission, a battery-electric car needs almost no service.
That worries car mechanics, a lot.
(5) To make automotive history, Tesla must build 800,000 cars
The company has already beaten Delorean (which built 9,000 cars), Bricklin (2,850), and Tucker (a mere 51) among notable automotive startups of the past half-century. At its current rate, it will have more than 26,000 cars on the world’s roads by December 31.
But there’s one other startup carmaker it still has to conquer: Kaiser-Frazer, founded just after World War II by famed industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. In its decade of existence, Kaiser built roughly 770,000 cars (and ended up owning Jeep).
It was December 1924 when Walter P. Chrysler founded the company that carried his name; it was the last auto brand founded from scratch in the U.S. by an entrepreneur that’s still with us.
If Tesla can exceed Kaiser›s total--perhaps by 2020 or so--it will become the highest-production automotive startup in 90 years.
If you want a lot more «amazing facts» about Tesla--and you›re a member of Quora--you may find this thread to be good reading.
So what are your favorite pieces of Tesla trivia?
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2013/0919/5-things-you-probably-didn-t-know-about-Tesla-Motors
by Ed Grabianowski
Neutral
Image courtesy Sony Classics The GM EV1 Tesla Motors and the Future of Electric Cars
The Tesla Roadster and the Tesla company have an unusual history. The company has almost no connection to the traditional American auto industry, and its founder had no experience in the auto industry when he decided to create the world’s first high-performance electric car. Martin Eberhard and his business partner Marc Tarpenning founded a company based on a portable eBook reader. Frustrated at the mainstream auto industry’s inability to create an effective electric car that had mass appeal (he often refers to early electric cars as “punishment cars”), Eberhard decided to create one himself.
The Tesla Roadster’s chassis is a heavily-modified version of the Lotus Elise chassis.
Image courtesy Group Lotus PLC Image © 2006 Tesla Motors, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Tesla Roadster’s chassis is a heavily-modified version of the Lotus Elise chassis.
Image courtesy Group Lotus PLC Image © 2006 Tesla Motors, Inc. All rights reserved.
Instead of creating an entire car and all its systems from scratch, Eberhard took advantage of outsourcing, which made the various elements easy to acquire. After netting $60 million in investment funds, (including over $30 million from Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal), the new company chose a design from England-based Lotus.
The Tesla-Lotus partnership works well for several reasons. Lotus’ Hethel, England facility is well suited to producing cars in small runs. This allows Tesla to basically manufacture cars to order, rather than building thousands and spending money to warehouse the overstock. Also, the Tesla Roadster is based on the Lotus Elise -- they look superficially similar and have the same basic chassis (though the Roadster’s chassis is heavily modified) and other parts. This added to the savings. While most of the Roadster’s parts and systems, such as the stereo, the brakes and the battery chargers are off-the-shelf, final assembly happens at Lotus facilities.
Tesla claims that the Roadster offers double the efficiency of popular hybrid cars, while generating one-third of the carbon dioxide.
Image © 2006 Tesla Motors, Inc. All rights reserved.
Are Electric Cars Finally the Next Big Thing?
Tesla’s business plan recognizes that innovative technology is often very expensive and that the very rich are usually the first people to adopt it. Once prices come down, the technology can move down into the market. That’s why Tesla’s first car is a high-end sports car only made in limited numbers. However, Tesla has set its sights on a 2008 release of a four-door electric sedan (codenamed White Star). The Roadster seems to be a success within its limited production numbers -- the first 100 limited edition “Signature Series” Roadsters sold out, and the next run of 100 is ready for pre-orders. A fully-loaded Roadster will cost $100,000, with a $75,000 down payment required to reserve one.
Electric cars will probably always be more expensive than cars that use combustion engines. The savings comes when you look at its the fuel costs and environmental impact. An electric car has zero emissions and doesn’t add to pollution. Driving an electric car a mile costs a fraction of what it costs to drive a gas-powered car a mile. Critics rightly point out that the energy to power an electric car still comes from somewhere in this case, a power plant that provides energy to the electrical grid. Shifting the source of the energy from oil to coal doesn’t necessarily make it any cleaner.
Tesla and other electric car proponents respond that electric cars are more efficient for several reasons. First, generating power at a power plant, even a coal power plant, is more efficient and creates less pollution than millions of small combustion engines creating the power. Plus, some of our electricity comes from cleaner power plants like hydroelectric plants, wind farms and solar cells.
In an interview with Wired.com, Eberhard claimed that the energy in a gallon of gasoline could drive an electric car 110 miles. Comparing average gas prices and electricity prices, the Roadster could go 150 miles for the price of one gallon of gas. Tesla reports twice the efficiency of even the greenest hybrid cars.
For lots more information on the Tesla Roadster, Tesla Motors, electric cars and related topics, check out the links on the next page.
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/tesla-roadster2.htm
January 27, 2012 NO CREDITED AUTHOR NEUTRAL
Electric cars are becoming increasingly more desirable, and overall they have more advantages than disadvantages.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Current and Future Electric Cars
Many automakers have plans to produce electric cars--also known as an electric vehicle (EV). Past EVs never gained popularity and had notoriously poor performance, short battery life and long recharge times. But automakers are confident that advances in technology will ensure that the next generation of electric cars will satisfy the needs of today’s drivers. Here are a few models scheduled to appear in showrooms soon.
Tesla Motors
Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 and quickly earned worldwide attention following the unveiling of the Tesla Roadster in 2006. This two-seater sports car accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds and has a travel range of more than 200 miles on a fully charged battery. The Roadster’s efficiency and performance showcases the company’s belief that an electric car can be both environmentally friendly and exciting to drive. The base MSRP is $101,500, which includes a $7,500 federal electric car tax credit. A “Sport” version is also available for an additional $19,500 and includes a sport adjustable suspension, performance tires and a 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds.
For those needing more room, Tesla is currently taking reservations for their upcoming Model S, an electric sedan that the company says will accommodate seven passengers. Varying battery and charging options will give the Model S a range of up to 300 miles and a charge time as fast as 45 minutes. Deliveries of the Model S are scheduled for late 2011 and the estimated price is $49,900 (including the tax credit).
Chevrolet Volt
The Volt is a five-passenger sedan that travels on pure electricity for an estimated 40 miles per battery charge. For longer trips or when charging is not possible, the Volt automatically switches to an onboard range extender, a gasoline-powered generator that creates more electricity to power the car. Chevrolet says the range extender will allow the Volt to travel an additional 300 miles per tank. The Volt is in showrooms at around $40,000.
Fisker Karma
Fisker Automotive is another start-up that the Karma, a four-passenger luxury sedan that uses a system almost identical to the Chevrolet Volt. The Karma has a 50-mile range on pure electricity before switching to a gasoline-powered generator that provides power for 300 miles per tank. The base price is around $87,000 (before tax credits are applied).
Smart ForTwo Electric
Smart is currently testing and researching an electric version of the ForTwo, which has an estimated range of 80 miles per charge. We should see the electric smart by 2012. Prices haven’t been announced.
Nissan Leaf
The Leaf, a five-passenger sedan with an estimated 100-mile range per charge, was released in late 2010. The Leaf sells for around $36,000.
You can expect this list of electric cars to grow as more customers look for alternatives to gasoline due to fluctuating gas prices and concern for the environment.
Is an Electric Car Right for You?
There are a couple of things to consider if buying an electric car is the right decision for you.
Price
One major factor is your price range. Some electric cars can go for over $100,000, so if you want to save money you may want to go with a hybrid instead. Because electricity is cheaper than gas, it is true that you can save money over time by driving an all electric car, but it takes a long time for the price to even out.
Speed
Electric cars are not made to go fast, and the current top speed of most models is less than 60 miles per hour. If you like to drive your car faster than that, an all electric car is probably not the best choice for you. That being said, if you will primarily use the electric car for short in-city commutes, an electric car is an excellent choice.
http://www.carsdirect.com/green-cars/electric-cars-advantages-and-disadvantages
BY JOHN VOELCKER
ANTI-TESLA
2012 Tesla Model S beta vehicle, Fremont, CA, October 2011
After a flurry of press events last October that included rides in 2012 Tesla Model S prototypes, Tesla Motors went mostly silent until it unveiled its Model X crossover last month.
But the electric crossover won›t generate any cash for the Silicon Valley startup carmaker over the next year or two. That role belongs to the Model S sedan.
Tesla is working intensively on getting its all-electric luxury sport sedan finalized and ready for production, it says, with deliveries to paying customers sometime during the second half of this year.
So now that the Model X design has been revealed, it›s a good time to return to the Model S sedan and assess both its prospects and those for Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] as a whole.
We turned to respected industry analyst Aaron Bragman, of IHS Automotive, for an evaluation of the company›s current and long-term prospects.
We asked him five questions.
(1) Is the 2012 Tesla Model S for real?
Yes. I’ve seen the prototypes, the production line, the tools, and the plant. Tesla is nearly ready to start production; it will build the Model S, and in 2012 too.
But several factors remain that work against the company, not the least of which is a major competitive disadvantage against efforts being made by major automakers, despite the massive influx of cash that Tesla has enjoyed.
(2) Can Tesla sell 30,000 Model S sedans per year?
The $57,400-and-up $64,900-and-up 2012 Tesla Model S will be a curious proposition for a luxury-car buyer. It enters a segment (mid-size luxury sport sedans) that doesn’t see huge volumes--and one in which brand loyalty tends to be strong.
2012 Tesla Model S beta vehicle, Fremont, CA, October 2011
Tesla likes to suggest that the Model S is unique and will set itself apart from competition that includes stalwarts like the BMW 5-Series, Mercedes-Benz E Class, and a dozen other models.
Perhaps it will—if Tesla’s sales goals are not terribly ambitious, they could be met. It’s possible to sell a few thousand of anything in this country, on novelty value alone. IHS Automotive forecasts that if Tesla can get the car to market, it will likely sell at least a few thousand.
But the idea that Tesla could sell tens of thousands of Model S sedans in the U.S. is folly. The most popular vehicles in that segment only sell a few tens of thousands themselves, with some models--Audi A6, Jaguar XF, Lexus GS--well below 10,000 sales a year.
Remember that hybrid vehicles themselves, which are far easier to own and operate than pure electric cars, are still just 2 to 3 percent of the total U.S. market. And a recent Deloitte & Touche research note suggests that whether car buyers actually want electrified vehicles is still a matter of some debate.
(3) What’s Tesla’s core competence?
2012 Tesla Model S beta vehicle, Fremont, CA, October 2011
Although it’s less publicly recognized, Tesla has revenue streams beyond just selling cars. Because of the proprietary systems they’ve developed and patented--everything from motors to controllers to battery packs to software--they can also generate income providing turnkey electric conversions to existing automakers.
In fact, that’s how they’re generating their revenue right now.
Given the increasing mandate from California alone to put zero-emission vehicles on the road, soon, Tesla may find itself very busy providing limited-production electric models to automakers--just as it already does for Toyota, Smart, and Mercedes-Benz.
(4) What can we learn?
The 2012 Tesla Model S is one of the most vertically integrated cars I’ve ever seen. I wasn’t aware how much of the technology in the Model S was developed in-house.
Tesla makes nearly everything on the Model S itself. The exceptions are some of the trickier bits, like the pedal box and steering column, which it gets from Daimler. Tesla even makes its own molded plastic parts, using machinery left by Toyota at the Fremont, California, assembly plant.
I suspect some of that self-reliance stems from finding the existing base of automotive parts suppliers uninterested--or unwilling to work with Tesla for anything other than exorbitant fees. That may have forced Tesla to go it alone.
On the plus side, that means Tesla can make very rapid design changes. On the minus side, it means the company’s costs are not terribly negotiable, as there isn’t competition among suppliers for the needed components. In other words, the fixed cost of Component Z is whatever price Tesla itself can bring it to fruition for.
(5) Will Tesla survive?
In a nutshell, I am much more confident about Tesla’s ability to survive now than I was this time last year.
At that point, I thought the idea that Tesla could survive without outside help from a major enterprise--likely another automaker-was remarkably uninformed.
I still think that as an automaker, Tesla needs to have a partner to survive long-term. But it has actually demonstrated that it can find partners who are interested in further tie-ups, and also that selling its own cars is not the only avenue to making money.
I remain skeptical, however, about the market chances for the Model S and the actual demand for a $57,400-plus $65,000-plus all-electric sedan from a relatively unknown brand, when compared to the modern and future competition.
2012 Tesla Model S beta vehicle, Fremont, CA, October 2011
In its best year, Porsche sold just under 8,000 Panamera sedans through 200 dealers. Tesla plans to sell how many Model S sedans through 55 dealers next year--without much in the way of inventory? Even Fisker has simply stopped providing guidance on its anticipated sales.
And sales of a few thousand Model S sedans, even fully loaded at $85,000 or more, will not generate anywhere near the revenue necessary to repay the U.S. Department of Energy loans Tesla has received--much less fund additional products, pay employees and suppliers, and keep the lights on.
We think, however, that Tesla would make a very interesting possibility as an electric luxury brand that shares space in Lexus showrooms. Thus far, Lexus hybrid vehicles have largely fallen short of customers’ (and even dealers’) expectations--with the possible exception of the latest compact hatchback, the CT 200h.
Put Tesla in there as a green alternative to Lexus, similar to the way Toyota is expanding the Prius model into a full lineup, and you may have a compelling scenario for a way that the Tesla brand and products could survive long-term.
HTTP://WWW.GREENCARREPORTS.COM/NEWS/1067021_2012-TESLA-MODEL-S-ELECTRIC-SEDAN-INDUSTRY-ANALYST-WEIGHS-IN