Tesla Roadster

[greencat]

How It Works
When you build a car that's electric, you start with one built-in advantage: Electric cars just don't have to be as complex mechanically as the car you're probably driving now. Sophisticated electronics and software take the place of the pounds and pounds of machinery required to introduce a spark and ignite the fuel that powers an internal combustion engine.

For example, 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. So there's less weight to drive around and fewer parts that could break or wear down over time.

The Tesla Roadster's elegantly designed powertrain consists of just the four main components discussed below. Mind you, these aren't "off-the-shelf" components, and each includes innovations, both small and large. But when you build a car from the ground up, you have the luxury of questioning every assumption — and to distill as you reinvent.

The Battery
When we set out to build a high-performance electric car, the biggest challenge was obvious from the start: the battery. Its complexities are clear: it's heavy, expensive, and offers limited power and range. Yet it has one quality that eclipses these disadvantages and motivated us to keep working tirelessly: it's clean.

The Tesla Roadster's battery pack — the car's "fuel tank" — represents the biggest innovation in the Tesla Roadster and is one of the largest and most advanced battery packs in the world. We've combined available and proven lithium ion battery technology with our own unique battery pack design to provide multiple layers of safety. It's light, durable, recyclable, and it is capable of delivering enough power to accelerate the Tesla Roadster from 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds. Meanwhile, the battery stores enough energy for the vehicle to travel about 220 miles without recharging, something no other production electric vehicle in history can claim.

Motor
Some people find it hard to imagine our car's supercar-level acceleration comes from a motor about the size of a watermelon. And while most car engines have to be moved with winches or forklifts, ours weighs about 115 pounds — a strong person could carry it around in a backpack (although we don't recommend it). Compare that to the mass of machinery under the hood of $300,000 supercars that still can't accelerate as quickly as the Tesla Roadster.

But more important than the motor's size or weight is its efficency. Without proper efficiency, a motor will convert electrical energy into heat instead of rotational energy. So we designed our motor to have efficiencies of 85 to 95 percent; this way the precious stored energy of the battery pack ends up propelling you down the road instead of just heating up the trunk.

Transmission
Our single-speed gearbox couples the low drag and fuel efficiency of a manual transmission with the driving ease of an automatic. The Tesla Roadster has only one forward speed. That speed is quick. How fast quick arrives is up to the driver. Perfectly modulated velocity is under total control at all times.

There is no clutch pedal. Just move the shift lever and the Power Electronics Module takes care of everything. You can launch from full stop to highway speed without taking your focus off the road, your foot off the accelerator, your hands off the wheel, or your mind off an entirely new kind of driving experience.

Power Electronics Module (PEM)
Most of the subsystems in the Tesla Roadster are completely electronic and under direct software control. Unlike lesser cars, these systems are not merely a hodge-podge of independent systems arranged pell mell. Instead, each component is designed to be part of a whole that is based on the modern architecture of complex network and computer systems.

You'll see the hub of this network every time you pop the trunk — the Power Electronics Module (PEM). When you shift gears or accelerate in the Tesla Roadster, the PEM translates your commands into precisely timed voltages, telling the motor to respond with the proper speed and direction of rotation. The PEM also controls motor torque, charging, and regenerative braking, and it monitors things like the voltage delivered by the Battery, the speed of rotation of the motor, and the temperatures of the motor and power electronics.

The PEM controls over 200 kW of electrical power during peak acceleration — enough power to illuminate 2,000 incandescent light bulbs.

[greencat]

About 220 Miles Between Charges
Before now, electric vehicles typically capped off around 60 miles per charge, relegating them to the status of commuter cars. The Tesla Roadster changes all that. Plug it in at night when you pull into the garage and you can drive about 220 miles on that charge the next day.

Just like the fuel gauge in your existing car, the instruments inside the Tesla Roadster indicate how many more miles can be driven before you need to think about recharging. So unlike the old days of electric vehicles, now you can "drive electric" without the anxiety you'll run out of charge and be left stranded.

How Long Does Your Cell Phone Take to Charge?
If you're like most people, you can't answer this question. You plug in your phone every night, and it's fully charged in the morning. You never think about how long it took so long as the charge lasts throughout the next day. Once you get into the habit, that"s the way you'll feel about your Tesla Roadster; every morning you'll wake up to a fully charged car, ready for whatever is on the day's agenda.

Charge At Home or On the Road
Plug your Tesla Roadster into its at-home High Power Connector unit, and you'll be fully charged in about 3.5 hours. But we consider this a "worst case" for someone starting with a completely dead battery. Even after a 100-mile trip, you can be completely charged in less than two hours.* And should you need to charge on the road, packed away in the trunk is an optional Mobile Connector that lets you charge from most standard electrical outlets while away from home.

A Bonus: Regenerative Braking
Regenerative braking — which recovers and stores the energy usually lost when you slow down — extends your charge even further, delivering higher miles-per-charge on in-town driving. Think of it like engine braking with a bonus. Whenever you slow down, you send a charge back into the battery. It's a much-needed silver lining to red lights, traffic jams, and other slowdowns.

A Better Battery
Unlike the lead-acid or nickel metal hydride batteries in most electric cars — which are heavy and difficult to dispose of — we use a proprietary Lithium ion battery pack. Nickel cadmium batteries were notorious for memory problems, and nickel metal hydride batteries reduced this problem. The lithium ion batteries we use in the Tesla Roadster eliminate the problem. So there is no need to worry about waiting until the battery pack is fully discharged before recharging it: feel free to charge your car whenever you have access to power.

Even with the demands of charging and discharging the battery pack on a daily basis, the batteries in the Tesla Roadster will give you more than 100,000 miles of peak performance driving. After that point, the battery will see only gradual drops in performance over time.

Battery Recycling
Unlike other batteries that came before them, Lithium ion batteries are classified by the federal government as non-hazardous waste and are safe for disposal in the normal municipal waste stream. However, dumping these batteries in the trash would be throwing money away. Even a completely dead battery pack contains valuable, recoverable materials that can be sold back to recycling companies for cash.

But reuse is such a key part of our philosophy, we're doing our best to arrange to have our car batteries safely recycled — even before we've sold our first car. Our goal is to include the cost of recycling in the purchase price of each car.

Electrical Cost to Charge the Batteries
With your electrical company's incentive pricing factored in, it will cost you roughly 1 cent per mile to drive the Tesla Roadster.** But the incentives don't stop there. Depending on where you live, other bonuses may include:

Single-occupancy access to all carpool lanes
Income tax credit (awaiting new legislation)
A luxury car that's fully exempt from the luxury car tax
Free parking at charging stations at LAX
No parking meter fees in an increasing number of major metropolitan areas
The information on this page should not be viewed as an official or legally binding document. For more information about electric vehicle incentives, visit Fuel Economy or consult an IRS tax representative.

Safety
Your personal safety is a priority for us. From the battery technologies we've chosen, to the unique design of our battery pack, our testing shows just how safe the Tesla Roadster is, even in extreme worst-case scenarios. Learn more here.




How far can this ground-breaking battery take you on a single charge? Significantly farther than any other EV to date.


This map gives an indication of the expected range. Your mileage may vary.

* With a Home Changing Station installed operating at 70 amps.
** Since most car owners recharge at night, this calculation uses off-peak charging rates with a time-of-use meter. To calculate your exact cost-per-mile, contact your local electricity provider.







© 2009 Tesla Motors, Inc. All rights reserved. ‘Tesla Motors’ and ‘Tesla Roadster’ are trademarks of Tesla Motors, Inc. (version 1-5-0316-229)

Tesla Motors

[greencat]

Big Blue dreams of a big green battery


Spike Narayan watched a Tesla electric sports car rocket from zero to 60 mph (100 kph) in less than four seconds and knew batteries would be the next big thing.

"It's hard to understand you're not in a gas powered Porsche," Narayan said as he recalled the demonstration outside IBM's Almaden Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley.

"Your head snaps back from the speed."

The vision underscored the importance of battery power to Narayan and other IBM researchers who led a future-of-batteries conference that ended Thursday at the center.

Scientists spent two days discussing potential new ways to store electricity and chart paths for research.

IBM is focusing on Lithium-Air batteries, which the company said has the potential to pack up to 10 times the power stored in Lithium-Ion batteries commonly found in cell phones and laptops.

The US technology giant and its partners expect to invest approximately 10 million dollars in the project during the next three years.

Narayan said that the time is right to strive for battery breakthroughs.

A Chevrolet Volt car poised for release in the United States has batteries that can power it for 40 miles (64 kilometers) without help from a gas engine built into the vehicle.

Toyota will soon launch a third-generation of the Japanese auto titan's popular hybrid gas-electric Prius, sporting even more energy efficiency.

Tesla Motors just recently received a 465 million dollar loan from the US Department of Energy to build an electric family sedan to accompany the Roadster sports car that is the young US company's sole offering.

IBM believes Lithium-Air could be the next big thing when it comes to providing batteries for those and other such innovations.

Big Blue's big green project has skeptics, some of whom debate whether consumers will be interested in energy efficient cars.

"Consumers are not willing to pay for fuel-efficient technology if they don't know the future of fuel prices, or even their own job," said Daniel Sperling, who co-authored the book 'Two Billion Cars' about the challenges of fuel efficiency.

While some electric car backers are encouraged by the success of a US "Cash for Clunkers" program which subsidized purchases of fuel-efficient cars by those trading in gas guzzlers, Sperling believes that more needs to be done.

"Consumer behavior is a big part of this," he said. "We need to do our best to align market forces to encourage them."

Some conference attendees claimed that a lack of guidelines at the US Environmental Protection Agency was leaving car makers free to promise mileage performance that vehicles aren't likely to deliver on.

Nissan announced its coming Leaf car will get 367 miles (590 kilometers) per gallon of gasoline, while Chevrolet says the Volt will squeeze 230 miles (370 kilometers) from each gallon of fuel.

"I would have never announced those numbers," Nobel Prize winner Burton Richter said of General Motors, which owns Chevrolet. "It was a stupid thing to do."

Richter and other conference-goers suspected that the performance by the cars may not be as spectacular as the companies claim, which could sour the consumers' tastes for alternative energy technologies.

Since hydrogen fuel cells aren't yet practical, Richter said, battery power is the best alternative to oil.

"The stars are aligned between national security freaks and climate change freaks," the Stanford University professor said of increased interest in oil independence.

"The world is eager for this stuff."

For conference speaker Ted Miller of Ford Motor Company's research division, better batteries go far beyond cars to better performing devices such as smaller iPods and longer lasting laptops.

"But these things take time," Miller said.

In the mean time, Miller was just glad to see progress.

"It's delightful to see 100 miles (161 kilometers) per gallon," he said with a smile. "It's a phenomenal feeling."

The Manila Times Internet Edition | TECH TIMES >Big Blue dreams of a big green battery