Tesla: Electric Vehicle and Tesla Essay

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Electric cars are squeaky clean, of course, in the sense that they don’t burn gas. With no engine, no gas tank, and no exhaust, they’re considered to be zero-emissions vehicles. But there’s more to a vehicle’s environmental impact than what comes out of the tailpipe. The Tesla doesn’t run on air. It runs on electricity, which in turn is generated from a range of different sources, from nuclear fission to natural gas to the darkest, dirtiest fossil fuel of them all: coal.
So if you’re going to stack a Tesla’s per-mile emissions against those of a gas-powered vehicle, you’ll need to start by looking at the composition of the electrical grid. Nationally, the grid is roughly 40 percent coal, 25 percent natural gas, 20 percent nuclear power, and about 10 percent renewable sources, led by hydroelectricity. So it’s fair to say that your average Tesla is powered in large part by burning fossil fuels.
Tesla acknowledges this, and insists that its cars are still far cleaner than their internal-combustion competitors. That’s because battery-powered cars are more efficient at converting their stored energy into forward progress. A Model S can travel upwards of 265 miles on a single charge of its 85 kilowatt-hour battery, which equates to less than 3 gallons of gas. Its official EPA miles-per-gallon equivalent is 89, far greater than a standard Toyota Prius.
Tesla's designs and ideas have changed the world. Most of our cars and trucks currently run on gasoline, and the shortage of fossil fuel is becoming a serious matter. The available alternatives are Electric, Hydrogen and Hybrid vehicles. Hybrid cars still emit carbon dioxide; Hydrogen cars produce pure water as waste, but technical problems need to be overcome. Moreover, hydrogen fuel cells use platinum for catalysts and supplies of platinum are limited. Tesla Motors believes that the electric automobiles are an ideal solution because zero emission is produced effectively during operation, no fuel is consumed while running, and the electric engine is much simpler comparing to hybrid, hydrogen and conventional cars.
Unlike other automakers, Tesla does not use single-purpose, larger format cells. Tesla uses thousands of lithium-ion 18650 commodity cells. 18650 cells are small, cylindrical battery cells, which are usually found in laptops and other consumer electronics devices. Tesla Motors uses a unique version of these cells, designed to be cheaper to manufacture and to be lighter than the standard cells. The cost and weight savings were made by removing some safety features which, according to Tesla Motors, are redundant because of the advanced thermal management system and a protective intumescent chemical in the battery pack. This chemical is intended to prevent battery fires.[54] Currently Panasonic, a Tesla Motors investor, is the sole supplier of the battery cells for the car company.
Tesla Motors may have the lowest rates for electric car batteries; the estimated battery costs for Tesla Motors is around US$200 dollars per kWh.[54][55] Currently, Tesla Motors charges $10,000 dollars more for the 85kWh battery than the 60kWh battery, or $400 per kWh. At $200 per kWh, the battery in the 60kWh Model S would cost $12,000, while the 85kWh battery would cost $17,000.
In the Model S, Tesla Motors integrated the battery pack into the floor of the vehicle, unlike in the Roadster, which had the battery pack behind the seats. Because the battery is integrated into the floor of the Model S, no interior space is lost for batteries, unlike in other electric vehicles, which often lose trunk space or interior space to batteries. The location of the battery pack and the lower ride of the Model S does put the battery at a higher risk of being damaged by road debris or an impact. To protect the battery pack, the Model S has 0.25 in (6 mm) aluminum-alloy armor plate.[56] The battery pack's location allows for quick battery swapping. A battery swap can take as little as 90 seconds in the Model
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