TESLA Gigafactory Drone Flyover

TESLA Gigafactory Drone Flyover 
This video shows the TESLA Gigafactory as filmed by a Drone that recently flew over the factory!

News From The Frunk New Model S 70D + P85D

News From The Frunk New Model S 70D + P85D

Nikola Tesla Namesake Inspiration For Telsa Motors

...Tesla Super-Coolness...

Nikola Tesla

Namesake Inspiration For Telsa Motors

Tesla Motors was named so after Nikola Tesla, who was a Serbian American inventor. Nikola Tesla was an inventor as well as being a mechanical and electrical engineer, as well as a physicist and futurist visionary. He is best known for his design contributions to creating modern electrical Alternating Current (AC) supply system.

Nikola Tesla Pictured Above In 1890

The 2014 BBC Documentary give a great in-depth overview of Nikola Tesla's lifetime career achievements, as well as offering insight into his fascinating mindset.

New Aluminum Battery Technology Could Give Tesla Model S 500 Mile Range

Stanford University New Aluminum Battery Technology Could Give Tesla Model S 500 Mile Range + Fully Charge Batteries In 5 Minutes
Stanford University has developed an Aluminum/Carbon battery technology that essentially doubles the capacity of standard lithium-ion batteries in the same space, while allowing a Model S to be fully charged in less than 5 minutes!!!!!

What does this mean for Tesla and the automotive world? First and foremost, range anxiety would become a thing of the past by offering 500 miles between charges, and it also means a Supercharger could charge up a Model S in less than 5 minutes. So basically, gas stations could also offer electricity, with the exception that instead of costing $70 to fill a car tank, it would cost around $5!!!
Also, these aluminum batteries can be charged up to 7,500 times without any loss in capacity, which is 750% longer than a lithium-ion battery!
This technology is still in its nascent stages, but shows great promise, and is probably the technology that will force the auto industry to move much more quickly to electric. Also, the Tesla Gigafactory could likely convert from manufacturing lithium batteries to aluminum/carbon batteries.
Also, imagine what this could do for laptops!?! I would give a laptop 24 hours of charge time, and could be charged to full in 5 minutes!!!! I could also give an iPhone a 3-4 day charge!!!
Forbes wrote an article about this technology which you can check out to learn more.

What it would take to build a true Tesla competitor?

What it would take to build a true Tesla competitor?

Autoblog just posted a fascinating article titled "What it would take to build a true Tesla competitor?" This is a question I keep asking myself. In other words, I believe that in order for anybody to compete successfully in electric cars they need to use the skateboard system that Tesla patented, and later open-sourced. 

The obvious challenge is that a company like Mercedes is probably highly conflicted about how to best more forward on making electric vehicles.

The design challenge is that, as I just mentioned, in order to make a car with the greatest space utilization they have to incorporate Tesla's battery skateboard design. If they do this, it makes it difficult if not impossible also create ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars on the same platform.

Domenick Yoney wrote:

"The Tesla formula is really simple. Take the cheapest and most energy-dense lithium battery cells available, build a thin, rectangular pack and place it in the floor of the passenger cabin. To get around the low-power output ability of these individual cells, use a lot of them. Then, stick the electric motor, inverter, and gear reduction unit between the rear wheels. Immediately, this creates a vehicle with the lowest possible center of gravity and maximum amount of rotational inertia – the two most important fundamental elements for creating a great-handling car."

The photo below shows a Tesla 18650 lithium Ion battery, which was made by Panasonic. Each Model S contains approximately 7,000 of these "laptop" batteries.

In order to illustrate my point, let me offer this example. One of my favorite cars I would love to own would be the current Mercedes SL550. The challenge is that I will NEVER buy another ICE car. In other words, I will only ever buy another car if it is electric/ Why? Because there are a zillion advantages Electric has over Internal Combustion. I took the photo below in February of 2015, in front of the Palace Of Fine Arts in San Francisco. It shows off the stunning lines of the Mercedes SL silhouette. 



Imagine if this Mercedes has the Tesla battery skateboard chassis, it would free up a tremendous amount of space in the front for huge frunk (front-trunk). 

Recently I observed a current model Mercedes SL that a couple was traveling in as they were on vacation, and had their suitcases stuffed behind the rear seats. The car was parked, and the suitcase were really crammed behind the two front seats. This is because if you put the top down, there is not enough room in the trunk for the luggage. If Mercedes-Benz made an SL with the skateboard battery pack design, like the one found in the Tesla Model S, it would free up the entire front trunk for luggage, which would make perfect sense.

The challenge is that Mercedes would not be able to dual purpose such a chassis to also produce an ICE version, and therein lies the challenge.

The solution to this challenge may be found today in the BMW i3 electric car, which is the only vehicle that uses the Tesla inspired "Skateboard" design. 

The image below shows the "skateboard" battery platform on the BMW i3, which is remarkably similar to the Tesla Skateboard design. There are so many benefits to this design, I don't see how any other automobile manufacture could match or exceed the design with something different.

The clue here is it appears BMW decided to develop their electric vehicle division completely isolated from their standard ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles. It's almost like BMW's electric vehicle division is a different company altogether, and perhaps that is what all other brands will have to do in order to compete with Tesla in the future.

It is going to be really interesting to see how the entire auto industry evolves of the next quarter-century, as it seem inevitable to me that in the future all cars will be electric. Until then, the Tesla Model S remains the king of cars.

Getting Excited About The P85D Acceleration

...Tesla Hotness...
Getting Excited About The P85D Acceleration

Test Drive Of A Petrol Car

Test Drive Of A Petrol Car

There is a superb story somebody wrote about a Tesla owner who drives an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) for the first time. I highly recommend it, as a great read!

The images below shows how crazy simple the Tesla Model S motor design is compared to an internal combustion engine as seen above. The image below is of the actual Tesla Model S DC motor, which is about the size of a watermelon. 

The image below shows the Tesla Model S drive unit outlined in the red rectangle. The actual motor is located on the right side, and it's lighter silver.

Since the Tesla Model S rear motor is strategically and intelligently placed between the rear wheels, it drives the rear tires directly without the need for a bulky transmission! This magnificently simple design also facilitates very fast acceleration at slow speeds.

The photos above and below show the Tesla Model S motor location, which is between the rear wheels. It is positioned so low, it sits far below the top of the rear tires on the rear transaxle. The battery pack, typically referred to as the Tesla Skateboard runs underneath the front and rear seats, thus giving the Model S, an unusually remarkable low center of gravity. 

The illustration below shows all three types of engine layouts for the Model S Tesla. Obviously the one of the far right, which is a dual motor Tesla Model S P85D illustrates the super low center of gravity. 

This super-low center of gravity translates into road handling characteristics that have never been seen before in a passenger vehicle. In other words, when you drive a Model S, especially a P85D, it not only maintains a perfect 50/50 front to rear weight distribution, but the car literally feels like it is almost glued to a track!!!