Tesla

Ever since I was a boy I’ve been interested in cars. My interest has been in the technology; what makes them tick. Most cars on the roads today are fundamentally similar in that they are powered by oil based fuels in internal combustion engines ( ICE ). These engines are sophisticated, inexpensive and fairly refined after over a century of development. They do have one overriding problem that they emit carbon dioxide. It is essential that mankind switches to a non carbon economy. The current consensus is that electric cars are the future. The only alternative being seriously developed is hydrogen which has some attractions but many difficulties. The automotive industry is overwhelmingly choosing electric.

The Tesla car company in America was founded about 15 years ago. It must be coupled with the name of founder, Elon Musk. It took great nerve to start the first major car company for decades. Tesla is now valued on the stock market at more than Ford or General Motors. Tesla is named after Nikola Tesla, a technologist working towards the end of the 18^th century who pioneered much alternating current technology. Tesla cars are all electric. Many other  electric cars are hybrids ie. combining ICE engines with electric. Also Tesla’s use a battery pack of very many small Lithium Ion cells combined together unlike most electric cars which use monolithic batteries.

Under the influence of Musk, Tesla cars are unlike any others in many other respects. Their interior is startlingly minimalistic with most control and instrument functions combined in one large multifunction touchscreen. Much of the car electrics can be modified wirelessly in the same way as computer software over the internet. Tesla is also going heavily down the self driving route. Already the cars use an auto driving mode enabling the driver to supervise.

Tesla started by making high end vehicles, very expensive and have only recently started making vehicles in the medium price range. However these have been very successful and Tesla is ramping up production from the current 350,000 annually. Tesla is building very large factories ( gigafactories ) first in America and then in China and Germany. The factory in China has been built and commissioned at phenomenal speed with start of construction at the beginning of 2019 to initial production expected start of 2020. At present batteries are made in partnership with Panasonic in America but it seems likely Tesla will move to fully in house production

Recognising that charging stations are very important Tesla has built its own chain with increasing charging speeds in N America and Europe.

While Tesla is not alone in all electric cars it seems that it is far ahead of the competition and independent assessments put their technology ahead. It appears that some cunning ensures their motors are more powerful and efficient. Battery packs supply DC electricity which is turned into AC ( called inversion ) for the motor. The battery pack is stored in a flat ( one cell tall ) sled underneath the rest of the car body. This means the vehicle centre of gravity is low and so the car handling is very good. This arrangement also gives a lot of storage room with the under bonnet volume replaced by a “frunk “( front trunk in American parlance )

Founder and chief executive Elon Musk was a rich man through his initial development of PayPal which he then sold. With both technical and business degrees Musk has become a serial entrepreneur. In addition to Tesla, Musk started Space X, the Boring Company and Neuralink. His wealth, ideas and contacts have enabled these companies to do extraordinary things already with the promise of more to come. Musk is a somewhat controversial figure with a tendency to talk about impossible goals and incredible timelines. What distinguishes him from idle dreamers is that he delivers on his promises albeit not always at the time he intends.

Musk is very aware of the climate emergency and that was his motive for founding Tesla.. At its present stage Tesla has 2 upper market products , one middle market with another entering production soon and a pick up truck and commercial vehicle at the prototype stage. Tesla also make and install solar energy equipment including a combined roof tile and solar cell. They have also installed grid scale battery back up for the western Australia electricity grid.

The particular feature of Tesla cars is their extraordinary acceleration. Because electric motors give high torque at zero revs; Tesla cars can approach or surpass supercar performance. While this is a feature in normal driving the cars also have a “ludicrous” mode which draws a high current from the battery but which gives blistering acceleration. While the cars just haven’t been around long enough for real life data Tesla guarantee the battery will retain 70% of capacity for 8 years. After that time it is suggested that batteries may have a further life in electricity grid back up before eventual recycling.

Battery electric in my judgement is still slightly marginal. Batteries are heavy, expensive and not very efficient. We appear to be looking at 250-300 miles range with a fast recharge to 80% capacity taking 10-15 minutes. Battery development is underway with an immense effort by Tesla and many others. We may expect improvements although no basic chemistry to supersede Li –ion has yet emerged.