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.

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.

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.

Think Ox is an all electric concept, which would make a nice family car.

There are 5 seats, 125 miles range, 5 star crash rating. Not sure how they got the crash rating, since it’s only a concept.

It’s light because the frame is made out of aluminum, it has a watercooled brushless electric motor, delivering up to 134 hp and overall seems like enough performance for an average family car type of vehicle.

There is a solar power panel integrated in the roof. I understand it won’t provide nearly enough power to run on it continuously, but it will still extend range a little when driving or parking under the bright sun.

Creators envision to have a fully functional computer on board for driver and passengers to be able to browse Internal, read emails, get directions, all sorts of location based services, audio & video applications and other fun stuff.

Tesla Motors already delivered 27 of their all electric roadster. They are all fitted with temporary transmission, motor and inverter. Tesla Motors started production in March 2008 using the old design, but decided to redesign the whole powertrain as soon as possible.

Now when this work has been completed, we know that the new gearbox design and implementation belongs to BorgWarner, the new transmission design is one gear as opposing to two in the old design and the new motor is about 25% more powerful. Inverter also has to support higher throughput now.

While improving power and torque, they managed to also improve range. It went from 211 to 244 miles on a single charge.

It was the agreement from the beginning of production that all customers who got temporary powertrain will be upgraded to the new one when it’s ready.