Tesla unveiled new all electric sedan called Model S

Official data on this car (although it might change several times before it goes to production) is:

Range: up to 300 miles per 4 hour charge.

0-60 in 5.6 seconds.

Deliveries are scheduled to begin at the end of 2011.

It’s designed so that you could swap the battery in 5 minutes. I guess, just in case if in the future there will be battery swapping stations, you could stop your electric car to recharge it at one of those stations, just like at a fuel pump, but instead of recharging, another battery pack is swapped in…  And off you go.

Some people might like the second trunk, which is located under the hood. I wonder where they put the engine. But it doesn’t surprise me that they managed to save some space for another trunk, because with electric motors - you could hide 2 or 4 smaller ones pretty much anywhere in the car. There are electric cars that hide them inside wheels! Model S doesn’t do that though.

It is unknown what options exactly will be offered and what they will cost. But it looks like even the basic configuration will have 17″ touchscreen in the dashboard.

In addition to huge touchscreen there is also 3G Internet connectivity. Might be optional and will probably require additional monthly fee, but I am still excited about the idea of having Internet access in the car whenever I want.

So what about the price?

Base price is $49,900. That is after federal tax credit of $7,500.

For the sake of comparison to conventional gasoline cars, let’s consider saving on gas over 5 year period, it would probably be about $10,000. It could be more if we forget about interest on such investment when you have to pay upfront, cost of new battery when you have to replace the old one, etc.

So I would say we are looking at a $40,000 car in conventional car terms.

That’s not much more than an entry level luxury car on the market today. At the same time I can see many people being repelled by the fact that Tesla is a new player on the market and nobody knows how this type of cars will depreciate in comparison to cars from other car-makers that were around for dozens of years.

That’s good progress in terms of price for pure electric cars. I think it’s awesome considering that there are not too many cars like that. I would still wait price to drop another 30% before I can call it completely reasonable.

MIT Researchers improved well known Lithium-iron-phosphate technology to allow faster flow of ions through material. This made it possible to create batteries that charge and discharge in a matter of seconds when needed.

Research is led by Gerbrand Ceder. MIT news site has a more detailed article about this research.

Now, having this technology available to electric car makers, means you could charge your electric car even faster than the time you currently spend fueling your conventional car. That would be great - that would eliminate one of the biggest pit-stops of electric cars.

According to Gerbrand Ceder, this technology could be available for public in just 2 or 3 years.

There are several electric vehicles that you can buy right now, but the problem is that those that are not too expensive, are very limited in power and speed.

For example, Tesla is around $100,000 and Zap cars are under 40 MPH so far.

Aptera can deliver highway speeds and it’s not very expensive. They promise to deliver first electric models in 2009. Here is a new video featuring the vehicle.

Obviously cars get into accidents from time to time regardless of the propulsion technology, whether it’s a mainstream gas engine or a relatively-rare-to-find hybrid…

From talking with my insurance agent, I was surprised to know something new about owning a hybrid car: apparently a hybrid owner will have trouble finding a certified auto appraiser to look at the damage on his/her hybrid. There are just several of those in Massachusetts. I can only imaging how hard it is to find one in less populated states.

I am not picking on hybrids. I am saying that any drivetrain technology, especially combinations of two technologies, like gas and electric in hybrids, will need some time to sink in to infrastructure that we have to support the ownership. Like here it is auto insurance industry that needs to adjust to be able to effectively help people who need repairs with their new “cutting edge technology” vehicles.

The biggest culprit with electric cars is that currently there is no infrastructure for efficient (fast) recharging or the battery. There are advancements that Europe does in this area, but it is still far from being ready for mainstream. USA makes far less of a progress developing infrastructure for new types of drivetrain. Let’s hope it will improve soon.

When it comes to choosing the type of vehicle I want to drive, I like to think and compare in many different categories:

• which type of car will take me from A to B faster?
• which type will do it cheaper?
• which type is emitting less pollution?
• which requires less infrastructure changes to switch to?
• etc.

Knowing that, it’s easier to realize what’s better for me now, what’s better for me in the future and what’s better for the environment we live in.

Interesting to know that even the most efficient gasoline engines, have very limited efficiency in terms of how much energy contained in the fuel will actually be converted to mechanical by the engine. It’s only around 32%.

Medium size electric motors are up to 90% efficient. And the bigger the motor is, the more efficient it can be. [Energy Conversion Efficiency].

Electric vehicle doesn’t need transmission in many cases and regenerative braking would be impossible on a pure gasoline car. This means that electric car can save a lot of energy that would be lost in gasoline car because of: transmission and breaks.

Gasoline car also needs to run its engine while standing in traffic or at the intersections - no need to do it in electric cars.

The bigger picture, comparing well to wheel energy efficiency, is far more complicated. You need to take into consideration storage loses in the battery, electricity delivery from electric plant to where you charge your car, plant efficiency. For gasoline you need to look at fuel refinery and delivery cost.

Another important piece of the puzzle is the effect on the environment. We know that if you are burning gasoline, you are releasing greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere.

On the other hand, there are multiple ways to produce electricity without pollution: solar, wind, ocean waves and tide, etc. Some people even talk about harvesting the energy of lightning - you just have to channel it into a big enough battery that can be charged quickly enough.

This electric vehicle has been announced quite some time ago, and this month (October 2008) is when production is scheduled to begin for the all-electric version of Aptera Typ-1. As of right now it is available for reservations.

Tree wheels, 2+1 seats and a very aerodynamic body, as you can see on the picture.

120 miles range on single charge, 0 to 60 mph in 10 seconds and top speed exceeds 80 mph.

I can imagine it’s not as stable as a car, but definitely looks more stable and safer then a 3 wheeled motorcycle. Aptera is actually classified as a motorcycle due to its light weight and lack of fourth wheel. One of the downsides to it not being a car is that it won’t get government tax breaks like electric cars and plugin hybrids get.

I think it’s a good option for a daily commuter. It looks cool, relatively large trunk and there is a child seat behind the front row.

The price tag is $27,000. Believe it or not, it’s actually more reasonable then most other manufacturers of electric cars today.

There has been a lot of talk lately about technological breakthroughs that might allow for great increase of electric vehicle range and reduction of the charge time.

The most noticeable promises have been given by a Texas company EEStor, which promised to create super performant ultracapacitors and have them store several times more energy than the best chemical batteries available today. EEStor’s site is currently under construction: http://eestor.us/.

If this is all true, we will soon have electric cars driving up to 80mph for 400 miles on single charge and you could recharge such car in 5 minutes, given that you can find an outlet powerful enough.

EEStore managed to raise the necessary funding and signed several partnerships, which kinda tells me that they proven that it can be done, although they are not very vocal about their work in press.

One of the big partners is an electric car maker ZENN. They sell low-speed electric vehicles for a while now and I believe represents an important strategic partner for EEStor.

Most recently they got Light Electric Vehicles Company on board, which in turn promises to deliver entire drivetraine based on EEStor’s Ultracapacitors. Here is an overview of what this is about, taken from their website:

EEStor EESUs are expected to provide over 450 watt hours per kilogram and over 700 watt hours per liter, charge in minutes, and, for all practical vehicular purposes, last indefinitely. By comparison, lithium iron phosphate batteries provide about 100 watt hours per kilogram and 170 watt hours per liter. Unlike electrochemical batteries, EESUs should not break down from use or time during the life of a vehicle. They are expected to deliver high current without loss of efficiency or excess heat, and they should operate at optimum efficiency over a wide range of ambient temperatures. They will be configurable for any output voltage that optimizes vehicle performance, and will maintain that output voltage at a constant level over the span of each discharge cycle. Production is expected to start mid 2009.

Chrysler recently announced 4 electric and hybrid electric vehicles, all developed over the last few years by special team within Chrysler, called ENVY.

I personally only pay attention to 100% electric cars, because those are most energy efficient, environmentally clean and promise to improve better then other types of alternative drivetrains.

Our of announced vehicles, Dodge EV is pure electric vehicle with range of about 150 to 200 miles.

It provides decent acceleration: 0-60 in under 5 seconds. Decent - in terms of sporty electric cars! It would be awesome for any petrol car.

Chrysler is preparing this car to sell by the end of 2010, as well as Chrysler and Jeep electric vehicles.

Seems like 2010 is the target year for many manufacturers to deliver one or more vehicles that do not produce any emissions. There is a real race unfolding in front of our eyes and we are going to witnesses and be the judges in this race. We all are going to vote by buying one or the other type of vehicle over the next few years.

I am very excited to see how “mass production of electric vehicles” race plays out.

Here is why I don’t understand hybrid vehicles:

In the best case scenario hybrid vehicles would have an optimized gasoline or diesel engine which would kick in when the battery goes low - generating more electricity and extending vehicle’s range this way. I am saying this is the best case scenario because this way engine can work on only the most optimal RPM - which is a big deal for a combustion engine - a lot of optimization potential when it should only work on one RPM.

But the fact is that - unless you can afford to go on vacation for more than 6 month a year - you won’t be driving more than 60 miles per day. This means that 99% of people will not have to drive more than 60 miles a day.

In this case, why do you want to drive a gasoline or diesel engine with you everywhere, pollute air, have to fuel it up, having shorter range because this engine takes up room in the car and adds in weight significantly?

Here is what you can do instead when you need extended range:

Imagine, you drive to work in an electric car with range of about 100 miles, plug it in every night, no pollution, only pay about 2c per mile. Then when you need to go on vacation, you just hook this trailer, plug it in and go. I bet with comparable fuel tank, you can go further than your average gasoline car goes.

I would imagine that when electric cars are popular, you can rent one of those once or twice a year when you need it. So you don’t even have to buy one of those and don’t have to store it in your garage.

Neat, isn’t it?

ZAP (Zero Air Pollution) Company and Integrity Manufacturing joined their forces and now are building a new electric car factory in Franklin, Kentucky.

ZAP already has a variety of all-electric vehicles: bikes, scooters, cars and trucks. Some of them are concepts and some are already in production.

This company used to manufacture all their vehicles in China, but from now on it is all coming back to US, thanks to the State of Kentucky, which provided the necessary tax breaks and other incentives to make the move financially attractive.

The factory is expected to begin manufacturing electric cars in 12 months from now and is going to employ up to 1,000 people initially with more job openings in the future. Web site for future employment opportunities is here.

There are two concept cars, that in my mind are more attractive than the others - ZAP Alias and ZAP X, both of which you can reserve today and they will be delivered, as the manufacturer promises, in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

ZAP Alias is a relatively affordable and yet very functional two-seater on 3 wheels. The range is 100+ miles and the top speed is about 100 mph. Check out the video of this concept.

There is almost no information about ZAP X yet, except for this picture below and the fact that it is engineered by LOTUS Design.