The much hyped Tesla electric sports car finally went into full production this week. This year’s batch of the $100,000 vehicles is already sold out (press release, news coverage).
Although electric vehicles have been around for some time, the humble British milkfloat for example, they have up to now been slow, short range or merely comical. By contrast the Tesla does 0-60 in under 4 seconds, can travel over 300 km and looks like something you wouldn’t die of embarrassment if you were spotted in.
Whether this marks the real arrival of the electric car is far from clear however. And the Tesla is in no way ‘zero emission’, as the company claims…
First off, super-cheap petrol cars seem to be the next big thing in the growth markets of the far-east, threatening to undermine the minuscule emission reductions from a few wealthy eco-warriors mothballing their Ferraris. Of course, Tesla know this. Their idea seems to be you start at the top end of the market, and the technology will filter down once electric cars are cheaper / more desirable.
Secondly, even at the claimed 135 miles to the gallon equivalent all the car does is shift the emissions away from the tailpipe and to the power station.
According to US figures, motor gasoline produces about 156 pounds of carbon dioxide per million British thermal units of energy (70 kilograms per 109 joules). While nuclear energy puts out 0 pounds, coal produces over 200 (90 kg per 109 joules). So if you’re charging up your Tesla with juice from a coal power station you might as well just fire up your Hummer.
It’s worth remembering the pioneers don’t always reap the benefits of their progressiveness. The Tesla car’s namesake, pioneering physicist/engineer Nikola, ended his days impoverished and alone, with feeding the pigeons outside his hotel window one of his few pleasures.
Image: Tesla roadster, photographed by fogcat5 via Wikimedia
