Reinventing the wheel
by Cate Montana
SAN CARLOS, CA – What goes from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds, has one moving part in its motor, a top speed of 130 mph, and is a joy to drive? The new zero-emissionsTesla Roadster. Oh yeah – and it’s all electric, has a driving range of 200+ miles, and can be fully recharged in 3.5 hours plugged into an AC outlet in your garage.
While Detroit motor companies whine about California emissions standards and jump on the bandwagon to create wimpy hybrids yet continue to build SUVs that get 13 miles to the gallon, a couple of guys from California with a penchant for sexy wheels, a passion for the environment, and an entrepreneurial streak as wide as the Bonneville Salt Flats have stepped up to the mark with a goal to revamp the auto industry in style.
“Sustainability and resource depletion are among our deepest concerns,” says Martin Eberhard, CEO and co-founder of Tesla Motors. “We set out to design a car that combines style, acceleration and handling with advanced technologies in order to make the Tesla Roadster a viable alternative to fossil-fuel cars.”
With a base sticker price of $92,000 on its Roadster, Tesla Motors has a ways to go before it can give Hyundai competition in mass market appeal. But then the first Model T wasn’t exactly in everyone’s price bracket when it sold for $825 back in 1909. Henry Ford sold 10,000 cars his first year of production. Tesla Motors sold out its ‘reservation only’ Tesla Roadster initial production of 100 cars in three weeks. Currently in the Validation Prototype stage at its UK assembly plant, the first Roadsters are slated for a fall 2007 delivery. The company is now accepting reservations for its 2008 model year cars on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Despite their pricey entry model, like Ford, Eberhard and co-founder Marc Tarpenning are clearly aiming for nothing less than eventual mass market sales. “These early customers for the ‘Signature One Hundred’ are pioneers, helping lay a foundation that will make electric cars possible for everyone,” says Eberhard. “They will be enabling Tesla Motors to develop future models at price points that eventually work for every budget.”
Sex sells
Focused on revolution when they founded the company in July 2003, Eberhard and Tarpenning’s first goal was to develop a desire for their cars. When they looked at the market they realized that, with the possible exception of GM’s EV1, historically electric cars had been designed by people with very little imagination and even less concern for comfort. “Electric cars have had terrible range and embarrassing styling,” says Eberhard. “To those who say electric cars have been tried and failed we say, ‘of course electric cars won‘t catch on if no one actually wants to drive them.’”
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Which car would you like to drive?
Following the fundamental Western principle that sex sells, the company founders consciously set about shifting Western perception of electric cars by developing a high-end sports car that was gorgeous and thrilling to drive. The Tesla Roadster, a no-compromise driver‘s car that can accelerate faster than a Porsche 911 and hit a top speed over 130mph, was developed as the prototype from which the “performance DNA” for other electric vehicles could be extracted. The next model planned for 2009, a less expensive four door sports sedan, code-named White Star, will leverage the Tesla Roadster‘s technology into a vehicle that can be sold at higher volume. And so on down the line – someday - to a basic economy model.
Unlike other electric vehicle companies like ZAP and even Daimler Chrysler’s General Electric Motors, which are focused on building uber ugly futuristic electric models such as the GEM2, Tesla Motors creates vehicles that conform to all U.S. safety, environmental and durability standards. The Tesla Roadster and all future Tesla Motors vehicles include modern safety equipment such as airbags, front crumple zones, side impact protection, and 2½ mph bumpers. They meet all the necessary Department of Transportation requirements for insurance and registration. The Tesla Roadster comes complete with its Electric Vehicle Service Equipment (EVSE), a home-based charging system, which features an automatic safety disconnect system and an optional mobile charging kit. And then of course the car also incorporates other necessities of life – such as allowing you to connect your iPod to the stereo using Apple's dock connector which not only charges your iPod but also gives you basic control of your iPod using the controls on the stereo.
Reinventing the wheel
Considering the fact that Tesla Motors has basically reinvented the automobile while researching and redesigning every single component of the Tesla Roadster, it’s a wonder the car is as reasonably priced as it is.
Using a unique two-speed electrically actuated manual transmission, the Tesla Roadster's power comes from a 3-phase, 4-pole AC induction motor. The motor is controlled by the Power Electronics Module (PEM) which also controls the inverting direct current to 3-phase alternating current, charging and braking systems.No larger than a watermelon, the whole motor weighs around 70 lbs.But more important than the motor’s size or weight is its efficiency.
Most gasoline fueled internal combustion engines have a mechanical efficiency of about 20%, wasting about 36% of the energy in gasoline as heat lost to the cooling system, and another 38% through the exhaust. The rest, about 6%, is lost to friction. The Roadster's motor has efficiencies of 85 to 95 percent.
The Roadster’s Energy Storage System (better known as a battery), provides power to the entire vehicle, including the motor. The ESS has a durable, tamper-resistant enclosure that houses 6,831 lithium-ion cells, a network of microprocessors for maintaining charge balance and battery temperature, a cooling system, and an independent safety system designed to disconnect power outside the enclosure under a variety of detectable safety situations.
While the typical four-cylinder engine of a conventional car comprises over a hundred moving parts, by comparison, the motor of the Tesla Roadster has just one: the rotor. The engine and transmission of a conventional car also need lubricating oils, filters, coolant, clutches, spark plugs and wires, a PCV valve, oxygen sensors, a timing belt, a fan belt, a water pump and hoses, a catalytic converter, and a muffler — all items requiring service, and all items that aren’t needed in an electric car.
But the inventions and ingenuity of the Tesla Motors Roadster don’t stop with what’s under the hood. Each Tesla Roadster that rolls off the production line sports a skin made from lightweight carbon fiber/epoxy composite that took two years of design, prototyping, and testing to develop.
“From the earliest days of our work developing the Tesla Roadster’s body, we realized we had several major challenges on our hands,” says Barrie Dickinson, Director of Body Engineering. “We had to achieve a low level of aerodynamic drag to increase efficiency, and we had to keep our mass down in order to maintain a high power-to-weight ratio and achieve maximum acceleration. Equally important was our imperative to create a body style for the Tesla Roadster that made people desperately want the car - irrespective of its efficiency or level of performance.
“Selecting the right body material and manufacturing process was crucial to achieving our goal. We ultimately chose carbon fiber, a material you will see in few cars available at the Tesla Roadster’s price point.”
Everywhere you look on the Tesla Roadster, whether it’s the hidden door handles, the novel HVAC system, or its regenerative braking system which recovers and stores the energy usually lost when you apply the brakes — thus extending your charge, it shrieks quality and ingenuity.
In addition, industry shortcomings that have been worrisome for consumers considering switching to electric transportation have been smoothed out in the Roadster’s development and production. The car sports a “fuel” gauge that indicates how many more miles can be driven before you need to think about recharging. Because the car uses a proprietary Lithium ion battery pack, there is no need to worry about waiting until the battery pack is fully discharged before recharging. At a range of 200+ miles per charge, the omnipresent fear of running out of juice is handled for daily driving. And, because the car can be recharged so quickly – or even partially charged if necessary – longer trips are no longer fearsome prospects. Just hand the maitre ‘d an extension cord to plug in while you stop for lunch and sip wine on your way to that B&B weekend.
Although the Roadster has been developed and assembled at a Lotus manufacturing facility in the UK, and will continue to be manufactured there at least in the foreseeable future, Tesla Motors is very much an American company. At this point it will not sell cars outside the U.S. The company recently announced it will be building a 150,000 square foot assembly facility for the White Star in Albuquerque, NM. In alignment with its sustainable ethics, every employee at the plant will be a shareholder in Tesla Motors, and the facility will be built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) specifications for energy efficient manufacturing.
Currently in development are Tesla Motors Customer Care Centers in five key markets, Northern California, Southern California, Chicago, New York, and Miami, each of which will be offering direct sales and support for buyers and owners. The Customer Care Centers are scheduled to be online by the end of 2007. For customers interested in purchasing a Tesla Roadster outside of those areas, Tesla Motors offers a pick-up, service and re-delivery service, BUT, there’s an $8,000 out-of-service-area premium charged to cover the costs for transportation of the vehicle to the nearest Tesla Motors Customer Care Center and for other related servicing expenses.
Such is the price for bleeding edge technology – at least Tesla Motors style technology. But we don’t have to look too far back in history for a similar scenario. Just imagine the good ol’ days of the horse and buggy, and just what it took for those first intrepid horseless carriage drivers to forge a new frontier.
For more information about Tesla Motors, go to www.teslamotors.com
