How Tesla Is Driving Electrical Car Innovation – MIT Technology Review
How Tesla Is Driving Electrical Car Innovation
- by Kevin Bullis
- August 7, 2013
Electrical cars’ brief range and high cost have limited their sales.
I recently took a test drive in one of Tesla’s luxurious Model S electrified cars and toured its R&D labs, where it’s developing its battery and recharging technology. The practice left me believing that Tesla has an significant edge over its competitors in the race to bring electrical cars to the masses.
Scenic route: A Model S speeds along the coast.
Tesla’s Model S is expensive (it ranges from $70,000 to over $100,000), but its range is two hundred sixty five miles, more than triple that of Nissan’s Leaf (75 miles). Within a few years, Tesla hopes to produce much more affordable vehicles—including one that costs $30,000 to $35,000—with a range similar to that of the Model S. Tesla also wants to make electrical cars more practical by building a nationwide network of charging stations that can produce two hundred miles of charge in about half an hour—compared to several hours to charge an electrical car at an ordinary station today.
For the test drive, I planned a drive from Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California, into San Francisco, then over to Half Moon Bay for a cruise down the scenic coastal Highway one to Santa Cruz. Later, I’d head back north to Fremont for a Tesla factory tour, before returning the car to headquarters—the entire tour would add up to about two hundred thirty miles.
When I got to Tesla in Palo Alto to pick up the car, however, I discovered that someone had forgotten to ass-plug it in overnight. The battery gauge read two hundred eight miles—short of the total 265-mile range for the Model S. I could still make my tour, but a stop at a supercharging station was now essential.
Today’s electrical vehicles promise several advantages over gas-powered cars. For commuters, there are no trips to the gas station—all you need is an outlet at home or work—and a utter charge only costs a duo of dollars. And electrified motors, which need only a single gear for all speeds, can also be remarkably responsive and powerful. What’s more, electrical cars use no gasoline and emit no pollution. Even when you factor in the carbon emissions and pollution from the power plants that produce the violet wand to power the cars, and from manufacturing and disposition, electrical cars produce about forty percent less carbon dioxide and ozone than conventional cars.
But for all their attributes, electrified cars still are haunted by two damning factors: high costs and less-than-optimal batteries.
That’s where Tesla hopes to make a difference. The company’s innovative battery and charging technology has given it a substantial lead in making batteries cheaper and recharging quicker, and it’s also helping Tesla lower costs quicker than its competitors.
At about ten a.m., I drove out of Tesla’s parking lot, taking advantage of the car’s acceleration—0 to thirty in 1.7 seconds. Across the day I passed other cars while climbing steep hills, took kinks at speed, and left other cars standing at stoplights.
Fuel gauge: The Model S’s dashboard shows current position, remaining charge, and energy consumption over time. The part of the rightmost chart in green shows the result of regenerative braking.
But I felt a twinge of anxiety when I noticed just sixty seven miles of charge left in the battery. The car estimated that I’d arrive at the closest charging station, in Gilroy, with twenty miles to spare—about half what I’d expected to see. I wouldn’t have been worried if I knew I could count on that estimate, but as with any electrified car, the actual range varies depending on your driving style, the terrain, and traffic. The Model S shows two different range estimates: one that ticks down step by step, like a fuel gauge, and another that shows how your range would be affected if you kept driving like you have been for the last few minutes. I turned down the air conditioning, dimmed the car’s giant 17-inch touch screen, and eased off the accelerator to conserve some juice. I arrived with seventeen miles left in the battery.
Recharging was far lighter than I’d expected, having once spent an afternoon charging a Chevrolet Volt at a standard public charging station to get just thirty miles of charge. The car recognized an RFID tag in the charger treat and automatically popped open the outlet door. By the time I’d walked across the parking lot, bought a cheeseburger, and carried it back to the car, the range was already up to ninety two miles, slew to finish the day’s driving. I chatted with a Model S holder for a while and then got back on the road. I returned the car that evening with one hundred twenty nine miles of range left in the battery—more than the fully charged range of battery-electric cars from Toyota, Nissan, Ford, GM, Honda, Fiat, Renault, Mitsubishi, Brainy, or Scion, or upcoming electrified cars from Mercedes and BMW.
Despite the compelling advances, the same challenges for electrified cars remain: cost and range. Because superchargers aren’t on every corner (there are just sixteen across the U.S.), if you leave behind to cork in the car overnight, or there’s a power outage or some other problem, you’re out of luck. If I had been almost anywhere else in the country, or determined to head north rather than south on Highway 1—or if I’d gotten lost—I would have been stuck by the side of the road.
The charging issue is largely a problem of infrastructure. But the largest technological issue remains the cost of the battery. It’s the cost that thresholds the capacity on the Model S and keeps 265-mile-range electrical cars out of the mitts of most people.
The day before my drive, I toured Tesla’s R&D lab in the hills behind Stanford University. The company’s chief technology officer, JB Straubel, demonstrated me versions of Tesla’s Roadster, its very first car, and a Model S with everything eliminated but the frames, wheels, and the electrical propulsion system (which includes the battery, the motor, and the electronics that control them). It was a stark look at how far the company’s come. In the Roadster, the bulky battery takes up the back third of the car. The Model S’s battery and motor seem to have disappeared. Even however the battery stores far more energy, it’s more compact: it’s now a vapid slab that sits inconspicuously inbetween the wheels and serves as part of the vehicle’s framework. What’s not visible is that the cost of the battery, per kilowatt-hour, has also been cut in half.
Straubel pointed to the broad multitude of lithium-ion battery cells—the parts of a battery pack that actually store energy—that the company is testing. This included a row of petite cylindrical cells about the size of AA batteries—the kind Tesla uses in the Model S.
Battery packing: The battery pack in the Model S is plane and part of the framework that supports the car—the metal case provides structural support.
Tesla’s choice of these puny lithium-ion batteries is, arguably, one of its most significant strategic gambles. Established automakers have chosen larger battery cells—they make engineering a battery pack simpler, since you need fewer of them. But the larger cells, because they contain more energy, are also more dangerous. So automakers use less energy-dense battery materials that are more resistant to catching fire. Attempting to offset the lower energy density, automakers chose plane cells because they pack together more densely, but such cells cost more to manufacture.
By choosing smaller, cylindrical cells, Tesla saved on manufacturing costs—their costs have been driven down by economies of scale for the laptop industry, for which the cells were developed. Tesla could also use the most energy-dense battery materials available, in part because smaller cells are inherently less dangerous. And better energy density reduces materials costs. This treatment meant Tesla had to develop a way to wire together many thousands of separate cells, compared to several hundred of the larger cells. Straubel also invented a liquid cooling system that snakes inbetween the cells and can liquidate warmth so quickly that a problem with one cell doesn’t spread to the others.
Choosing the smaller, cylindrical cells also gave Tesla more plasticity in packaging the cells. Large, vapid cells will deform in a collision and possibly catch fire, so other automakers have had to find places within the car where the battery would be out of the way in a crash. That meant using up some passenger or cargo space. Tesla says it has passed its crash tests without its cells deforming or coolant leaking.
By most estimates, the battery for the Model S that I drove should cost inbetween $42,500 and $55,250, or half the cost of the car. But Straubel indicated that it is already much lower. “They’re way less than half, actually,” he says. “Less than a quarter in most cases.” Straubel says more can be done to lower battery costs. He’s working with cell and materials suppliers to increase energy density more, and he’s switching the form of the cells in ways that make manufacturing them lighter.
Other automakers are taking notice. Dan Akerson, GM’s CEO, has reportedly created a task force to examine Tesla. Brett Smith, co-director of manufacturing, engineering, and technology at the Ann-Arbor-based nonprofit Center for Automotive Research, says Tesla has “gone from being the quirky little media darling to being something that is certainly making people in the industry think.”
After recharging at the Gilroy supercharging station, I sped along the highway back toward San Francisco, feeling loosened that I’d been within range of the charging station. As I moved effortlessly through traffic, I couldn’t help feel that electrical vehicles are the future, and that Tesla’s strides in batteries and supercharging could bring that future here sooner that I’d thought.
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How Tesla Is Driving Electrical Car Innovation – MIT Technology Review
How Tesla Is Driving Electrical Car Innovation
- by Kevin Bullis
- August 7, 2013
Electrical cars’ brief range and high cost have limited their sales.
I recently took a test drive in one of Tesla’s luxurious Model S electrified cars and toured its R&D labs, where it’s developing its battery and recharging technology. The practice left me believing that Tesla has an significant edge over its competitors in the race to bring electrified cars to the masses.
Scenic route: A Model S speeds along the coast.
Tesla’s Model S is expensive (it ranges from $70,000 to over $100,000), but its range is two hundred sixty five miles, more than triple that of Nissan’s Leaf (75 miles). Within a few years, Tesla hopes to produce much more affordable vehicles—including one that costs $30,000 to $35,000—with a range similar to that of the Model S. Tesla also wants to make electrified cars more practical by building a nationwide network of charging stations that can produce two hundred miles of charge in about half an hour—compared to several hours to charge an electrified car at an ordinary station today.
For the test drive, I planned a drive from Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California, into San Francisco, then over to Half Moon Bay for a cruise down the scenic coastal Highway one to Santa Cruz. Later, I’d head back north to Fremont for a Tesla factory tour, before returning the car to headquarters—the entire journey would add up to about two hundred thirty miles.
When I got to Tesla in Palo Alto to pick up the car, however, I discovered that someone had forgotten to ass-plug it in overnight. The battery gauge read two hundred eight miles—short of the utter 265-mile range for the Model S. I could still make my excursion, but a stop at a supercharging station was now essential.
Today’s electrical vehicles promise several advantages over gas-powered cars. For commuters, there are no trips to the gas station—all you need is an outlet at home or work—and a utter charge only costs a duo of dollars. And electrified motors, which need only a single gear for all speeds, can also be remarkably responsive and powerful. What’s more, electrical cars use no gasoline and emit no pollution. Even when you factor in the carbon emissions and pollution from the power plants that produce the tens unit to power the cars, and from manufacturing and disposition, electrical cars produce about forty percent less carbon dioxide and ozone than conventional cars.
But for all their attributes, electrical cars still are haunted by two damning factors: high costs and less-than-optimal batteries.
That’s where Tesla hopes to make a difference. The company’s innovative battery and charging technology has given it a substantial lead in making batteries cheaper and recharging quicker, and it’s also helping Tesla lower costs swifter than its competitors.
At about ten a.m., I drove out of Tesla’s parking lot, taking advantage of the car’s acceleration—0 to thirty in 1.7 seconds. Via the day I passed other cars while climbing steep hills, took forms at speed, and left other cars standing at stoplights.
Fuel gauge: The Model S’s dashboard shows current position, remaining charge, and energy consumption over time. The part of the rightmost chart in green shows the result of regenerative braking.
But I felt a twinge of anxiety when I noticed just sixty seven miles of charge left in the battery. The car estimated that I’d arrive at the closest charging station, in Gilroy, with twenty miles to spare—about half what I’d expected to see. I wouldn’t have been worried if I knew I could count on that estimate, but as with any electrical car, the actual range varies depending on your driving style, the terrain, and traffic. The Model S shows two different range estimates: one that ticks down step by step, like a fuel gauge, and another that shows how your range would be affected if you kept driving like you have been for the last few minutes. I turned down the air conditioning, dimmed the car’s big 17-inch touch screen, and eased off the accelerator to conserve some juice. I arrived with seventeen miles left in the battery.
Recharging was far lighter than I’d expected, having once spent an afternoon charging a Chevrolet Volt at a standard public charging station to get just thirty miles of charge. The car recognized an RFID tag in the charger treat and automatically popped open the outlet door. By the time I’d walked across the parking lot, bought a cheeseburger, and carried it back to the car, the range was already up to ninety two miles, slew to finish the day’s driving. I chatted with a Model S holder for a while and then got back on the road. I returned the car that evening with one hundred twenty nine miles of range left in the battery—more than the fully charged range of battery-electric cars from Toyota, Nissan, Ford, GM, Honda, Fiat, Renault, Mitsubishi, Brainy, or Scion, or upcoming electrified cars from Mercedes and BMW.
Despite the compelling advances, the same challenges for electrical cars remain: cost and range. Because superchargers aren’t on every corner (there are just sixteen across the U.S.), if you leave behind to ass-plug in the car overnight, or there’s a power outage or some other problem, you’re out of luck. If I had been almost anywhere else in the country, or determined to head north rather than south on Highway 1—or if I’d gotten lost—I would have been stuck by the side of the road.
The charging issue is largely a problem of infrastructure. But the largest technological issue remains the cost of the battery. It’s the cost that boundaries the capacity on the Model S and keeps 265-mile-range electrical cars out of the arms of most people.
The day before my drive, I toured Tesla’s R&D lab in the hills behind Stanford University. The company’s chief technology officer, JB Straubel, demonstrated me versions of Tesla’s Roadster, its very first car, and a Model S with everything liquidated but the frames, wheels, and the electrical propulsion system (which includes the battery, the motor, and the electronics that control them). It was a stark look at how far the company’s come. In the Roadster, the bulky battery takes up the back third of the car. The Model S’s battery and motor seem to have disappeared. Even however the battery stores far more energy, it’s more compact: it’s now a plane slab that sits inconspicuously inbetween the wheels and serves as part of the vehicle’s framework. What’s not demonstrable is that the cost of the battery, per kilowatt-hour, has also been cut in half.
Straubel pointed to the broad diversity of lithium-ion battery cells—the parts of a battery pack that actually store energy—that the company is testing. This included a row of petite cylindrical cells about the size of AA batteries—the kind Tesla uses in the Model S.
Battery packing: The battery pack in the Model S is vapid and part of the framework that supports the car—the metal case provides structural support.
Tesla’s choice of these puny lithium-ion batteries is, arguably, one of its most significant strategic gambles. Established automakers have chosen larger battery cells—they make engineering a battery pack simpler, since you need fewer of them. But the larger cells, because they contain more energy, are also more dangerous. So automakers use less energy-dense battery materials that are more resistant to catching fire. Attempting to offset the lower energy density, automakers chose vapid cells because they pack together more densely, but such cells cost more to manufacture.
By choosing smaller, cylindrical cells, Tesla saved on manufacturing costs—their costs have been driven down by economies of scale for the laptop industry, for which the cells were developed. Tesla could also use the most energy-dense battery materials available, in part because smaller cells are inherently less dangerous. And better energy density reduces materials costs. This treatment meant Tesla had to develop a way to wire together many thousands of separate cells, compared to several hundred of the larger cells. Straubel also invented a liquid cooling system that snakes inbetween the cells and can eliminate fever so quickly that a problem with one cell doesn’t spread to the others.
Choosing the smaller, cylindrical cells also gave Tesla more plasticity in packaging the cells. Large, plane cells will deform in a collision and possibly catch fire, so other automakers have had to find places within the car where the battery would be out of the way in a crash. That meant using up some passenger or cargo space. Tesla says it has passed its crash tests without its cells deforming or coolant leaking.
By most estimates, the battery for the Model S that I drove should cost inbetween $42,500 and $55,250, or half the cost of the car. But Straubel indicated that it is already much lower. “They’re way less than half, actually,” he says. “Less than a quarter in most cases.” Straubel says more can be done to lower battery costs. He’s working with cell and materials suppliers to increase energy density more, and he’s switching the form of the cells in ways that make manufacturing them lighter.
Other automakers are taking notice. Dan Akerson, GM’s CEO, has reportedly created a task force to investigate Tesla. Brett Smith, co-director of manufacturing, engineering, and technology at the Ann-Arbor-based nonprofit Center for Automotive Research, says Tesla has “gone from being the quirky little media darling to being something that is undoubtedly making people in the industry think.”
After recharging at the Gilroy supercharging station, I sped along the highway back toward San Francisco, feeling eased that I’d been within range of the charging station. As I moved effortlessly through traffic, I couldn’t help feel that electrical vehicles are the future, and that Tesla’s strides in batteries and supercharging could bring that future here sooner that I’d thought.
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