WP: An Electric Car With Juice, from Silicon Valley

[DeepModem Mom]

An Electric Car With Juice
Silicon Valley Firm Bets Its Chips on the Speedy Tesla Roadster
By Mike Musgrove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 22, 2006; Page D01


The two-seat Tesla Roadster, with a top speed of 135 mph, can travel more than 200 miles before it needs to be recharged. (Tesla Motors)

Detroit is floundering, gas prices are rising -- now Silicon Valley is stepping in with an impractical-but-cool solution: A sexy, pricey and fast electric car that uses the same lithium ion batteries found in your cellphone or laptop.

The Tesla Roadster goes from zero to 60 in four noiseless seconds, has a top speed of 135 mph and can roam for more than 200 miles before needing a recharge.

This is not your father's electric car. The $100,000 vehicle, with its sports car looks, is more Ferrari than Prius -- and more about testosterone than granola.

Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors Inc. raised $60 million in financing from San Francisco Bay area tech giants to get this car on the road. Those famous Toyota Prius owners Larry Page and Sergey Brin -- yes, the Google guys -- have invested, as have executives from eBay Inc. and PayPal.

The company is headed by entrepreneur Martin Eberhard, the man once behind a gadget called the RocketeBook....Fittingly for a car designed in Silicon Valley, the Roadster comes with built-in satellite navigation technology and an iPod dock that allows drivers to control the music player via the car's standard Blaupunkt stereo....And, of course, there's a blog. At the Tesla Web site, Eberhard started making his case for the car and his company this week....While the flashy two-seater may be too expensive for most buyers to consider, the community of electric car aficionados has received Tesla warmly....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/21/AR2006072101515.html

[oldtime dfl_er]

1. Speaking as one who has never owned a car

in my entire life, I would buy that one (if the price came down or I won the lottery).


http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/999005

[elocs]

2. The sports car is most likely a marketing ploy.

It is to show the general public which tends to think of electric cars as being like golf carts that they can be cool and fast. Look for a more affordable family car to be coming down the line. This is definitely a warning shot across Detroit's bow.

[krkaufman]

17. Nope. Head of company says he's all about sports cars.

Future is open, but primary goal was to build an all electric sports car to compete with the likes of Ferrari.

Whatever the exact genesis, it *does* bode well for the future of non-combusto cars. (I still want a hybrid; I just want it to be an E85+/pluggable hybrid; and am not as hung-up/geeked on the auto as the founder of Tesla Motors, so a Prius-like car is AOK w/ me.)

[krkaufman]

21. I sit corrected.

"And Tesla Motors, Eberhard's company, is already gearing up for a four-door battery-powered sedan." (link)

Here's hoping the price comes down just a bit from their Roadster model.

[Dover]

3. More on this subject at this DU thread >>

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x60821

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Thank you, Dover -- great photo! nt

[Dover]

13. Historic connection to Nicola Tesla's "Magic Car"

When I first read the article about the new Tesla Roadster, I didn't know about this historic connection and it's namesake:



Did Nikola Tesla really run a touring sedan on free energy?


July 11, 2006

In the summer of 1931, Nikola Tesla, the inventor of alternating current and the holder of some 1200 other U.S. patents, along with his nephew Peter Savo, installed a box on the front seat of a brand new Pierce-Arrow touring car at the company factory in Buffalo, New York. The box is said to have been 24 inches long, 12 inches wide and 6 inches high. Out of it protruded a 1.8 meter long antenna and two ¼ inch metal rods. Inside the box was reputed to be some dozen vacuum tubes -- 70-L-7 type -- and other electrical parts. Two wire leads ran from the box to a newly-installed 40 inch long, 30 inch diameter AC motor that replaced the gasoline engine.

As the story goes, Tesla inserted the two metal rods and announced confidently, "We now have power" and then proceeded to drive the car for a week, "often at speeds of up to 90 mph." One account says the motor developed 1,800 rpm and got fairly hot when operating, requiring a cooling fan. The "converter" box is said to have generated enough electrical energy to also power the lights in a home.

The car is said to have ended up on a farm 20 miles outside of Buffalo, "not far from Niagra Falls."

cont'd

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=228x22319

[rodeodance]

4. eeks, time for bed as I first read it as saying CHAIR

[wakeme2008]

5. I like it

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Nothing wrong

with making saving energy sexy.

Once they have the technology figured out, they'll be able to build plenty of Dodge Dart versions for a lot cheaper I'm sure.

[robcon]

7. I don't get the impression that this is energy saving.

In order to get the motor/batteries for this kind of speed, an enormous amount of energy would be needed.

[cyberpj]

8. It's a first step - an idea - to trigger more ideas and innovation. That's

how you get things moving.

[Robb]

10. Translation:

For a price, you can escape the coming oil nightmare.

Paying customers only in the lifeboats, please. :eyes:

[Rose Siding]

11. Look at that stereotype: "more about testosterone than granola"

Ugly! What, changing habits to stop harming the earth is harmful to your winkie? Only hippies care about the future? No sumpin' sumpin' for you unless you drive a Viagrona at 12 mpg!

Ugh :grr:

[krkaufman]

20. Ya know, we gotta get the holdouts on board somehow.

This car should allow a two-front attack: ultra-expensive, sports cars like the Tesla Roadster can develop and test-out new technologies (lithium-ion batteries, carbon fiber skins) and help bring them to market, and the more immediately cost-effective solutions can be applied to "low-end" electrics and hybrids.

If nothing else, these electric sports cars may quickly dispell the notion of all electric cars being glorified golf carts. (And provide a big stick with which to whap the Big Three when they start bemoaning their financial straits.)

[Toots]

12. using same batteries found in your cell phone

Do they mean type, as in Lithium, or the exact same batteries? How many tiny batteries like that would you need to run a sports car? :shrug: I feel really stupid for even asking such a question but by the wording in the article I need clarification.

[krkaufman]

19. Not a stupid question at all. A very good one, in fact.

And the answer...

"The Tesla Roadster is powered by 6,831 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries -- the same cells that run a laptop computer."(link)

See also the "ESS" tab at Under the Skin

The Energy Storage System (ESS) -- comprised of several thousand consumer-grade lithium-ion cells -- is the heart of the Tesla Roadster. Battery conditions are continuously monitored and fed to the Vehicale Management System (VMS), allowing for precise tracking of battery history, performance, and available energy.

[KansDem]

14. As Garrison Keillor said recently about Silicon Valley...

The iPod was not developed by Baptists in Waco.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0608-23.htm

If Detroit can't or won't address the country's fuel/transportation problems, then maybe it's time for it to step aside and let someone else assume that task.

[Dems Will Win]

15. This is historic, this is going to work

the future that works just got started...

If this kind of car is charged at night with off-peak amps from the 30% extra base capacity, you can reduce oil use by 40% to 50% if the whole fleet switches over to electric cars and you would not have to build any new power plants or burn any additional fuel!!

Think about that.

[NotGivingUp]

16. Well, gee, I'm glad the rich folks will be able to get around....

while us poor folks won't be able to afford to get to our jobs to perform the slave labor for the rich!

[krkaufman]

18. SEE IT here.

Tesla Roadster body styling