The Tesla Roadster is an all-electric car with some very impressive specs:
- Acceleration 0 to 60 in under 4 seconds
- Top Speed of over 125 mph
- Range of 245 miles on one single charge
- Full Charge as short as 3.5 hours with an EVSE system installed (operating at 70 amps)
- Recharge can cost as little a $2.50 in electricity for a full recharge
Recharge cost depends on your electricity rates. A figure of under 2 cents per mile was reached using average winter/summer PG&E schedule E-9 off-peak “rate A” tariff, as of March 1, 2007. If you have solar energy at home or at work, you can use that to recharge the Tesla Roadster without further cost.
The Tesla also comes with a mobile-charging kit that lets you charge from any standard electrical outlet, e.g. in case you get stranded with an empty battery.
Electric cars requires little maintenance, as there are very few moving parts; you don't need to change engine oil, filters, gaskets, hoses, plugs, belts, there's no catalytic converter or exhaust pipe to replace.
Cost is an issue, the Tesla Roadster 2008 model has a pricetag of $92,000 and the battery pack warrenty is limited to 100,000 miles, while it still costs thousands of dollars to replace. But battery cost is expected to come down in future, while at the same time battery capacity and performance is expected to increase over time.
Being electric, the car makes little noise, so you may select a noise to be played over the sound system, so people can hear you coming. And of course, being electric means that there are no emissions that contribute to global warming, if you can get your electricity from a clean source of power, such as solar, wind or hydro energy.
For more details, see:
http://teslamotors.com/
http://www.youtube.com/group/teslaroadster
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Comments: 19
Brain Freeze A Bipolar Depressive Issue
Dow Gardens Christmas Walk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_the_Electric_Car%3F
http://earthissues.multiply.com/video/item/16/
Actually, the electric car dates back to between 1832 and 1839 (the exact year is uncertain), when Robert Anderson of Scotland invented the first crude electric carriage. Between 1899 and 1900, electric cars outsold all other types of cars in America. Why? Because they did not have the vibration, smell and noise of gasoline cars and required neither gear changes nor much manual effort to start (as with the hand crank on gasoline cars). The only good roads in those days were in town, so most travel was local, which was perfect for electric vehicles with their limited range.
Anyway, it's time to reinvent the electric car, for its convenience and for the positive contribution it can make in terms of the environment and global warming.
No price as of yet, but great potential.
You're stuck with a 4 hour round trip, two hours each way.
It just won't fly till they fix that.
The graph below shows that most trips are short, so batteries alone will suffice to power electric motors in vehicles making such trips.
For longer trips, a battery swap might help out. As I described in my article Cheap Electric Cars, an electric car has been announced that also comes with a battery exchange service.
For long-distance travel, however, I believe that electric cars carrying hydrogen and a fuel cell is the best alternative. Hydrogen could be produced at service stations along highways, using on-site electrolyzers and electricity from on-site solar/wind facilities, complemented by off-peak grid electricity. An example is Honda's Clarity, announced on 14 November at the Los Angeles Auto Show:
http://world.honda.com/news/2007/4071114All-New-FCX
You can sign up for the Clarity at:
http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/owning
Honda also announced a new and more compact Home Home Energy Station, which connects to a home's existing natural gas supply for production of hydrogen, while also providing heat and electricity to an average-size home.
http://world.honda.com/FuelCell/HomeEnergyStation
For more details on the station, see also:
http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/owning/home-energy-station
Of course, Honda already had a station that produced hydrogen from solar power back in 2001.
http://world.honda.com/news/2001/c010710.html
I just did a post on Tesla and saw this - fantastic - one of the inventions I did not mention
Hi Sunaura, great post on Tesla. While Tesla didn't invent the above car, he worked hard to give free electricity to the world. The fact that it's so much cheaper to drive on electricity than on gasoline makes it appropriate that the company who brought us this innovative car named itself after Tesla.
Had Tesla lived today, I'm sure that he would be driving a Tesla Roadster and would have worked out ways to recharge electric cars without cables, in the form of microwaves transmitted from, say, streetlights. That would make recharging of electric vehicles part of the public road system, which would benefit the many people who don't have a garage.
As you know, Nicola Tesla worked hard on ways to transmit electromagnetic energy without wires. The photo below was taken on December 31, 1899, and shows Nicola Tesla quietly reading a book while conducting his experiments at his lab in Colorado Springs.
Of course, recharging your electric car this way wouldn't be this sparky - the photo is a double exposure to picture the extent of the electrical discharge. As electric cars become more popular, there could well develop more demand for this method of recharging their batteries.