Return of the EV

0 to 60 in four seconds. Freeway speeds while carrying four passengers and a full load. A 250-mile range on a single charge. Cars that draw attention because of their good looks. These are the characteristics of the new generation of electric vehicles.

For political and environmental reasons the push for low or zero emissions vehicles is increasing. There are several technologies in progress that are working to make it a reality. The hydrogen fuel cell is the most talked about solution and touted as the future of the auto industry, but it is still a decade or more away from production. Hybrid vehicles are the technology of today and are readily available. While a step in the right direction, they still rely on gasoline and produce harmful emissions. The electric vehicle is the dark horse in the industry, but there are several companies looking to change that.

At the forefront of style and design, Tesla Motors is putting the fun in driving a performance car without the guilt of owning a gas-guzzler. The Tesla Roadster was introduced late last year garnering many accolades including Time Magazine Invention of the Year in the transportation category.

Tesla Motors is the brainchild of life-long auto enthusiast, Martin Eberhard. The idea was born when he asked electrical pioneer, Allan Cocconi, inventor of the electric car that would later become GM’s Saturn EV1 in the late 1990s, to install a lithium-ion battery pack in his electric kit car. Eberhard later teamed up with his former business partner, Marc Tarpenning to start the first U.S. car company since John DeLorean’s attempt in the 1980s.

Like most high-tech products of our time, the early models are more expensive. As the technology gets established, demand and innovations make it more affordable. Rather than launch their upstart car company with a mass-market economy vehicle, Tesla chose to create some excitement with the Porsche-class
Roadster and enter a $3 billion a year US market. This approach won over PayPal founder, Elon Musk, who agreed to fund the car company through production to the tune of $27 million.

“Who wants to take an ugly $20,000 car and buy it for $65,000? That’s not a very viable strategy. I wouldn’t want to drive it. My wife certainly wouldn’t want to drive it,” said Musk.

The plan was to put a lithium-ion battery pack into a high-priced, high-performance car and make it even faster. That someone might buy.

While Eberhard and Musk are both car enthusiasts, they are not automotive engineers. Aware that their product required the finest in automotive design, they went to the top.

“We wanted the first Tesla car to handle like a proper sports car, so we approached Lotus Cars, known to make the finest-handling sports car on the road,” said Eberhard.

While not built on a Lotus Elise frame like the popular rumor, Tesla did team up with Lotus design and engineering for much of the critical structural and safety design.

“The Tesla Roadster does indeed carry some Elise DNA, but it is a very different car, designed to meet different goals and deliver a different experience,” states Eberhard in his blog.

Tesla invited several designers to submit proposals for the styling of the Roadster. Most of what they got was cartoon style electric cars with fake solar panels. Then, with the help of IDEO founder, Bill Moggridge, Eberhard made a presentation to the stylists and began receiving designs closer to what he originally imagined. After several informal focus groups consisting of people putting green and red dots on the parts they liked and didn’t, it was clear that the design by Barney Hatt of the Lotus Design Studio was the winner.

“Elon and the Tesla team spent a lot of time and several trips to England working with Barney to perfect the styling,” said Eberhard.

Eberhard was trying to save the fledgling motor company money by using fiberglass body panels and the Elise hard plastic seats. Musk insisted on using carbon-fiber panels and changing out the seats for more comfortable padded ones. He also insisted on custom-designed, DOT-compliant headlights with covers because he felt the exposed lights made it look too much like a kit car. The revision would cost half a million dollars but Musk was willing to pay.

The Roadster can travel over 200 miles on a single charge, which gives it the longest range in EV history. The battery is charged using a special charger connected to a 220-power outlet just like a standard dryer uses. The battery charges to 80% capacity in only a few hours. It can also be charged by plugging into a standard outlet, reaching a full charge in 8 hours. Tesla Motors likens it to charging a mobile phone.

“No one knows how long it takes to charge their cell phone,” they state on the Tesla Motors website, “You just plug it in at night and it’s charged by morning.” It’s all about the routine.

Tesla has sold the first run of 100 Roadsters, which are due out later in 2007. They have also sold out of the first production run for 2008. If you want to get on the waiting list, the soonest you can get your Roadster is next summer.

After they conquer the high performance vehicle market, Tesla plans to release a sport sedan, code named, Whitestar, in 2009. Plans have also been made to build a manufacturing facility in New Mexico.

Phoenix Motorcars is another company emerging in the EV race. Taking an entirely different approach, Phoenix Motorcars is developing SUTs and SUVs targeted at the corporate fleet market. While not the speedster of the Tesla Roadster, the Phoenix SUT is comparable to gasoline cars in its class with 0 to 60 acceleration in 10 seconds. The SUT will go 95 mph with a full payload and travel 130 miles on a single charge.

Phoenix has teamed up with Altairnano to use their NanoSafe™ battery to power the UQM Technologies drivetrain. The batteries are lithium-ion based with a titanium compound mixed in to prevent thermal runaway, generate longer battery life and allow for faster charging. The NanoSafe™ battery can be charged to 95% capacity in 10 minutes using a special charger that can be easily installed in a household garage. The cost of a full charge is about $3 in electricity according to Phoenix Motorcars CEO, Daniel Elliot. The battery can also be trickle-charged overnight using a standard outlet.

Phoenix will begin selling the first production run of 500 2007 SUTs later this year and plans to produce 2000 in 2008. These are intended for fleet sales. In 2009, Phoenix plans to sell the SUTs and SUVs to the general public for around $45,000.