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A dynamic, innovative motor company based in California has released a svelte new electric car in the U.S. and Europe that excites car enthusiasts and environmentalists in equal measure. If you think battery power will never replace petrol power on Australian roads, read on.

Silicon Valley, California, is famous for being the Information Technology capital of America. Home to iconic brands such as Apple, Intel and Hewlett-Packard, these computer brands are household names that have put Silicon Valley on the map. They now have a new neighbour, a motor company more at home in Silicon Valley than it would ever have been in the motor car capital Detroit.

Tesla Motors and the cars that bear its name, are built upon the same creative, entrepreneurial thinking that created and developed the personal computer, the mp3 player and the cellular mobile phone. Tesla Motors is creating a new breed of electric cars, more like conventional cars in the way they look and function but bristling with highly advanced electronic technology that extends their capabilities well beyond previous benchmarks.

Tesla Motors, the first company to produce an electric car that can travel more than 320 kilometres per charge, has designed two pure electric cars that are as stylish, practical and fun to drive as most conventional vehicles at a similar price point – the Tesla Roadster and Tesla Model S. This has been made possible by applying creative, lateral thinking to the science of electric vehicle technology.

The aluminium bodied Model S will have three battery pack options allowing drivers to select whether they want a car that can deliver up to 250, 370 or 480 kilometres per charge. With a claimed top speed of 190 kilometres per hour or more, the Model S will be well suited to highway driving. Is it any wonder then that Tesla Motors is being taken very seriously by the world’s major motor manufacturing establishments. So seriously that Daimler AG invested $50 million to acquire an equity stake of 9.1 percent of Tesla Motors Inc.

Named after the scientific genius Nikola Tesla, Tesla Motors is the only production carmaker currently selling a highway-capable pure electric vehicle in North America and Europe. Unlike hybrid vehicles, the Tesla Roadster and Model S are purely electric, do not use petrol or diesel and therefore produce zero CO2 emissions.

What is so exciting about the Tesla Roadster is that here at last is a car that uses no petroleum fuel yet by all reports is a great car to drive and to own. Car enthusiasts may miss the engine noise and exhaust note but they won’t miss the sharp acceleration and high speeds readily on tap.

To drive a Tesla Roadster past petrol stations without ever needing to stop, or even to look at the price of fuel on the driveway sign must be as satisfying as knowing you drive a car that acknowledges global warming and the inevitable day in the future when petroleum fuel will be prohibitively expensive or unavailable at any price.

The following information courtesy www.teslamotors.com

Under The Skin

When you build a car that’s electric, you start with one builtin advantage: Electric cars just don’t have to be as complex mechanically as the car you’re probably driving now. In a pure EV, 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 powertrain consists of just the four main components discussed below. Mind you, these aren’t “off-the-shelf” components, and each includes patented intellectual property. 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 Tesla 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 – 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. Tesla combined available and proven lithium ion battery technology with their own unique battery pack design to safely provide multiple layers of energy. It’s light, durable, recyclable and is capable of delivering enough power to accelerate the Tesla Roadster from 0 to 60 miles per hour (96 km/h) in under 4 seconds. Meanwhile, the battery stores enough energy for the vehicle to travel 392 kilometres without recharging, something no other production electric vehicle in history can claim.

The Motor

It’s hard to believe but the Tesla Roadster’s supercar-level of acceleration comes from a motor about the size of a watermelon that weighs about 115 pounds (a strong person could carry it around in a backpack, although that’s not recommended). Compare that to the mass of machinery under the hood of $300,000 supercars.

But more important than the motor’s size or weight is its efficiency. Without proper efficiency, a motor will convert electrical energy into heat instead of rotational energy. Tesla has designed a motor with efficiencies of 85 to 95 percent; this way the precious stored energy of the battery pack ends up propelling the car down the road instead of just heating up the boot space.

The Transmission

A 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 control at all times.

There is no clutch pedal. The driver just moves 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.

The Power Electronics Module

From an electronics viewpoint, this is where it gets really interesting; most of the subsystems in the Tesla Roadster are completely electronic and under direct software control. Unlike lesser cars, these systems are not merely an interconnected hodge-podge of independent systems. 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 can see the hub of this network if you open the boot – the Power Electronics Module (PEM). When you shift gears (eg: from forward to reverse or vise versa) 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.

Are people ready to drive electric cars

If demand for the Tesla Roadster in North America, the UK and Europe is anything to go by, the answer is a resounding yes! Tesla Motors has sold more than 1,300 Roadsters and has delivered more than 500 vehicles to customers. In addition, Tesla has already received more than 1,250 reservations for the Model S.

Tesla Motors has dramatically shortened the length of time it takes for recharging their cars by developing more durable lithium ion battery packs that can be more quickly re-charged. A case in point is the Model S; Tesla Motors claims that with the highest spec of 3 battery packs on offer, the Model S will travel up to 480 kilometres per charge and will also have 480 volt charging capacity. This will mean a complete recharge is possible in 45 minutes – the same amount of time it takes to park, get petrol, eat lunch, go to the bathroom and otherwise take a break from a long journey.

Tesla Motors has made the leap to the next level of electric vehicle technology and by so doing has demonstrated that in time and with on-going development, the pure electric vehicle can replace the motor car. The company has put its money where its mouth is and has succeeded in making two pure electric cars that are stylish, user-friendly and good to drive. Exciting even! And the Tesla Roadster, the Model S and the upgrades to follow will be a welcome re-assurance that the end of the oil need not be the end of driving pleasure. More exciting still – according to a recent announcement by Tesla Motors, a right hand drive version of the Tesla Roadster might be available in the EU in late 2009.

Celebrities such as David Letterman, George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Will.i.am (of the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas), Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt have already received their very own Tesla Roadsters. That’s real “street cred” in anyone’s language. If these are the cars of the future, I say bring them on!