Honda, Toyota & Nissan Reviews
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Here is an article for your reading pleasure on the new fully electric Tesla...
Who Killed The Electric Car?
Well apparently it wasn’t the new Tesla. The insanely fast new electric 2-seater sports car set to debut next year in Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside and San Diego. Just when you thought the electric car was dead, ala the GM EV-1, along comes the new super electric sports car. The Tesla maintains an electric engine and a two speed gear box making it capable of 0-60 speeds in under 4 seconds and a top speed of around 130 mph.
Many roadsters these days are capable of reaching 0-60 in under 4 seconds. The obvious thing that sets the Tesla apart is that it’s a one hundred percent electric car. There are no revving V8s, V10s or V12s here. The Tesla is “a sleeper” in the truest sense. When it kicks your ass at the street races don’t say you weren’t warned. Our view of the electric vehicle is certainly about to change.
"The dream behind this car was to build an electric car for people who like to drive," Martin Eberhard, CEO of Tesla Motors. “The result is a very high performance roadster that gets the equivalent of about 135 miles per gallon."
The original EV-1 electric car could go 0-60 in about 8 seconds and had a top speed of only 80 mph. The range on the EV-1 was also only about half of that of the Tesla which clocks in at around 250 miles per recharge. A full recharge takes around 3 hours. The Tesla runs on 6,831 lithium ion batteries about the size of an AA battery. The makers of the Tesla refer to the battery system as an ESS or Energy Storage System. Having many small batteries rather than a few big ones like in the EV-1 permitted the engineers to allow for better weight distribution as well as a more optimal storage solution. You can recharge the ESS around 500 times before needing to replace all the batteries. This is the equivalent of around 100,000 miles. A portable charger is available which allows you to plug into any conventional outlet. You can also charge up at an electric charging station.
It took Martin Eberhard an electrical engineer and creator of the Rocket ebook 3 years to get his prototype ready for mass production. The idea for the Tesla originally came to him while in the market for a new sports car. He wanted something quick and sporty yet got good gas mileage. He was quick to learn than this combination wasn’t currently in existence and reluctantly started researching the possibility of making an electric sports car. Harnessing the technology of modern day batteries Eberhard quickly realized the far greater potential for an electric car only 10 years after the EV-1 had failed to go mainstream. Eberhard knew he wouldn’t need to invest in battery design or efficiency. The big computer companies were already on top of that. He then could use the technology they had already invested in and focus his efforts and finances on the actual car design and motor.
Eberhard ultimately contracted British car manufacturer Lotus to build his new no emission electric sports car. Lotus was hip to the idea and both Eberhard and Lotus knew the Tesla would have to be something completely revolutionary in order to spark the interest of a society that had already seen electric cars come and go. Since the car was ultimately designed and built in Silicon Valley, they were safe from the prying eyes of other auto makers. The design and manufacturing of the sporty electric car went along relatively smooth.
The motor used has a maximum rpm of 13,500. This is about twice as fast as a high performance modern day car engine. This allows the Tesla to go up to 70 mph in first gear. Don’t try that in any internal combustion driven car. The second of the 2 gears sets the Tesla up at a maximum cruising speed of about 130 mph. Due to be released to the general public in the summer of 2007 the Tesla is fetching $100,000. The first 100 were presold in three weeks with full payment up front.