Currently, there are no electric vehicles on the market which are suitable for lengthy drives, which of course has contributed to a low ‘up take’ of these vehicles. However, that is all set to change near the end of 2012 with the introduction of the Tesla Model S. This vehicle is apparently capable of travelling up to 300 miles on a single charge. It isn’t a small vehicle either, in fact, it can seat 7 passengers, and it is incredibly fast (for an electric vehicle). It is able to accelerate from 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds.
The battery is much bigger than anything that we have seen before. The battery has 85KW Hours, which means it has three times the capacity of its nearest competitor, the Nissan Leaf. It is able to accomplish this via the thousands of lithium-ion cells which are powered by new chemistry available from Panasonic. This means that they are able to store more power than other cells of the same size.
At the same time, Tesla plans to install a number of 440-volt charging stations on the highways of America, starting with the I-5 between Los Angeles and San Francisco. This will charge the vehicle within one hour. A standard charge will take one night.
In order to protect the motor, circuits and battery from eat, a liquid coolant will run through the components. This enables the vehicle to deliver twice the power of the previous Roadster from Tesla.
These are certainly exciting times for those that are interested in electric vehicles, I am sure that even better technology will be heading our way in 2013, so brace yourself!
