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Tesla Motors says its Tesla Roadster can accelerate, brake and handle like a high-end sports car. The company, in fact, claims the car can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in four seconds.
The big difference is that it runs completely on electricity. It plugs into the wall and is not a hybrid. The battery gives it a range of 250 miles.
"We have made a sports car that is really a sports car," said CEO Martin Eberhard. "It is first and fundamentally a driver's car."
A public unveiling of the car is slated for July 12 in Santa Monica, Calif., at which buyers will also be able to sign up to buy the first cars that come off the line.
The secretive start-up, founded in 2003, has also attracted some big-name investors. Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page have put money into the company, as have Elon Musk and Jeff Skoll of eBay fame, VantagePoint Ventures and Draper, Fisher Jurvetson. In all, Tesla has attracted $40 million in venture investing.
Alternative energy has become one of the hot markets for venture investors in the past two years. Brin and Page are also investors in Nanosolar, and Draper, Fisher Jurvetson has made several clean technology investments. The sale of hybrid cars and solar systems for homes have been rising and in many areas become status symbols.
The sports car won't be cheap, Eberhard conceded. Nonetheless, once the technology is established, it will lead to less-expensive cars for the ordinary driver.
The company will not likely license its intellectual property to other auto manufacturers. It's just not standard practice in the auto industry.
"When was the last time Porsche licensed an engine from someone else? They haven't," he said.
The company is named in honor of Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American who invented the rotating magnetic field and who obtained around 700 patents.
Electric motors rely often on the repulsion and attraction of magnets. Often, an electric motor consists of a stationary, permanent magnet attached to a hub and surrounded by pairs of electromagnets. Those magnets are embedded in a rotating cylinder attached to the wheel. Rapidly changing the polarity of the electromagnets from positive to negative causes the wheel to propel itself forward.
Tesla Motors has not given any technical information about the design of its motor.
Because the car runs entirely on electricity, however, it will likely create less pollution than even plug-in hybrids, which run mostly on electricity. Electric cars don't emit fumes, but since electrical power plants often rely on coal, greenhouse gases are created in charging these cars. In California, little coal is used, but it's big in Pennsylvania.
One thing the company doesn't appear to have is an overwhelming history in the automotive industry, at least among the executives. Before starting Tesla, Eberhard was CEO of NuvoMedia, which tried to market the RocketBook, an electronic book. Electronic books were astounding flops with consumers; however, Eberhard did manage to sell the company to Gemstar for $187 million.
Many of the other executives are also alumni of NuvoMedia.
The only executive listed on the company's Web site who worked at an automotive company is Malcolm Powell, vice president of vehicle integration. Before Tesla, he helped create the Lotus Elise.
Chief Technical Officer J.B. Staubel, however, has worked in the aircraft industry and retrofitted his own Porsche to run on an electric motor.
The San Carlos, Calif.-based Tesla Motors has 70 employees.
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It is not, however, an electric car. Nor is it a sports car (although Smart do make a sports car, the model pictured isn't it). Its 700-800cc engine (depending on model) gets around 55 mpg, but 0-16 acceleration is on the order of 15 seconds. Hardly Porsche territory.
Until recently, I owned a Smart Car and they are without doubt an excellent city car. It is misleading, however, to associate a photograph of one with an article on an all electric sportscar.
car after Tesla.
Tesla was a strong proponent of AC electricity and Edison tried
to squash his career by say AC was dangerous.
What's my point?
Bet you the car runs off of DC electricity.
Marketing plain and simple, (or maybe just hype) maybe these
guys discovered cold fusion too.
Tesla was proponent of AC because he practically invented it
and because of the superiority of AC system over DC.
By the way this year is 150 anniversary of his birth.
Now these guys just have to say "NO!" when Govt. agents ask them to help them set up a "drug sting" or they'll go the way of John Delorean.
RE: Tesla & Edison. Edison hated Tesla because Tesla insisted on credit for his inventions and started his own company. It was probably Tesla who invented half of the things for which Edison took credit.
BTW, AC is superior to DC in only one characteristic--transmission. Otherwise it is inferior in every aspect. If and when fuel cells are ever perfected, DC will be generated at the point of use and transmission lines, transformers, power supplies, and all the rest of those energy wasters will go the way of telegrams and teletype machines.
We'll only see them in museums.
http://www.metricmind.com/qa.htm
I got to (briefly) test drive the GM EV1 once at street speeds (but not highway speeds) some years ago. It handled almost exactly the same as my Saturn SL1.
Historically, auto racing has been a major driver in the development of the gasoline engine. It is time for auto racing to switch to hybrid-electric (e.g. Nascar) and hydrogen-electric (e.g. Indy) engines to kick this inovation into high gear.
simply because A. the rotor is nothing but
and aluminium Cage. The same AC IMs are used
in your fans which can work fine with single
phase AC for over 40 years without any
maintenance.
B. Due to something called Space-Vector modulation
and a ton of new algorithms for the last 30 years.
its easy to replace ALL DC drives with
Space-Vector modulated AC drives . Each drive
comes with a embedded DSP like Motorola 56F800
or a ADI Blackfin or a TI TMS320CXX. You
need not have any gearbox and co-ordinate
2 separate driveshafts which communicate
electronically. It does not even require
any rotor position sensor as it uses Model
refernce Adaptive control to measure Flux,
Direct and quad currents and otehr parameters.
BTW it works very well at low speed regimes.
Such drives can adjust well to any level to
required torque and speed.
Technical Specs
You might feel like you need an electrical degree to make heads or tails out of the specs below. That?s because no such car has existed before. We became aware of this historic fact many months ago when attempting to pick up a chassis prototype at San Francisco International Airport. The customs agent asked a simple question that began a ?Who?s on First? kind of dialogue. What kind of engine? None yet, we replied. How many cylinders? Zero.
There simply weren?t the right boxes to check off on the form.
Tesla Roadster Technical Data
Motor Type designation 3-phase, 4-pole electric motor
Max net power 185kW
Max rpm 13,500
Efficiency 90% average, 80% at peak power
Torque see torque curve chart
Transmission Type: 2 speed electrically actuated manual transmission with final drive; constant mesh gears and inertia lock key type synchromesh
Gear Ratio Overall
First 4.20 : 1 14.3 : 1
Second 2.17 : 1 7.4 : 1
Final Drive 3.41 : 1
Reverse reverse direction of motor
Front Suspension Type: independent; upper and lower wishbone; co-axial coil spring/telescopic damper unit; anti-roll bar
Rear Suspension Type: independent; upper and lower wishbone; co-axial coil spring/telescopic damper
Brakes Type Cross-drilled 300 mm front and 310 mm rear discs with curved vane ventilation; AP Racing Two piston Aluminum fixed front calipers; Brembo Single piston sliding rear calipers
Operation Vacuum pump driven Servo assisted with 4 wheel ABS system
Wheels Type Forged Light alloy
Size - front 5.5J x 16
Size - rear 7.5J x 17
Tires
Type Yokohama Neova AD07 LTS
Size - front 175/55 R16
Size - rear 225/45 R17
Dimensions Overall length (in. / mm) 155.4 / 3946
Overall width - incl. mirrors (in. / mm) 73.7 / 1873
Overall height (at curb weight) (in. / mm) 44.4 / 1127
Wheelbase (in. / mm) 92.6 / 2352
Track - front (in. / mm) 57.6 / 1464
Track - rear (in. / mm) 59.0 / 1499
Curb weight Around 2500 pounds (subject to complete safety and durability testing)
Leg Room (in./mm) 42.0 / 1067
Front Head Room (in./mm) 36.7 / 932
Front Shoulder Room (in./mm) 26.0 / 660
Standard Interior features Heated sport seats with inflatable lumbar support
Three-spoke leather-wrapped sport steering wheel
Perforated leather-trimmed interior in tan, black, or gray
Blaupunkt stereo sound system with single-disc CD player, iPod interface, and MP3 playback
Cruise Control
Homelink universal transmitter to operate compatible garage, gate, and home lighting/home security systems
Power windows and locks
Air conditioning
Single retractable cup holder
Standard Exterior Features Double-insulated black soft top
Proprietary halogen low- and high-beam headlamp assemblies
LED tail lights
Forged uni-directional seven-spoke wheels in silver finish: 16? front, 17? rear
Locking wheel lugs
Tire Inflator/sealant
Cold weather ESS heater for cold weather charging to -20 degrees Celsius
Home-based charging system with integral safety features for 3.5 hour full re-charge
Standard Safety and Security Features
Four-sensor, four-channel Anti-lock Braking Systems (ABS)
Traction control
Tire pressure monitoring system
Front and rear crumple zones
Driver and passenger front airbags
Rigid occupant safety cell
Side impact door beams
Seatbelt pretensioners
Integrated headrests
Vehicle theft-deterrent and engine immobilizer system
PIN for security in operating the vehicle
Valet mode to restrict speed, acceleration, and distance
Factory-installed options and accessories Two-tone premium interior
Bluetooth cellular phone integration
XM Satellite radio with 170 channels of digital sound
Seven-speaker premium sound system tuned for Tesla Roadster cockpit
Touch-screen navigation system with voice guidance
Matching body-colored carbon fiber hardtop with full headliner
Metallic and premium paint
Tesla Motors custom floor mats
Mobile charging system
- The secret...
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by zoetherot
January 31, 2008 8:58 AM PST
- Ok keep this on the QT, but I heard that the tesla car requires live bunnies as fuel and has a backup tank filled with pixie dust. Have to run, army of internet monitoring tesla midgets with pick axes and torches coming......ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!!!!
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