Charging Ahead

Popular Science talks to dot-com billionaire Elon Musk about why he's banking on American-made electric cars

By Arnie Cooper Posted 12.15.2008 at 10:21 am 9 Comments

Man and Machine: Elon Musk and his all-electric Tesla Roadster John B. Carnett

If there's a gene for entrepreneurship, Elon Musk has it. From his first project at age 12 creating and selling a videogame called Blastar for $500, to his $1-billion-plus sale of PayPal to eBay in 2002, the 37-year-old South African is every bit the born mogul. These days he's chairman of Solar City, the largest residential solar-power provider in California. He's also the founder and CEO of Space X, a space-exploration company that made headlines last September when it launched the first privately developed rocket into orbit. But lately it's Musk's newly minted role as CEO of the San Carlos, California-based start-up Tesla Motors that is drawing the most attention. In October, amid global financial tumult, Tesla received a $40-million cash infusion from private investors and announced that by 2011 it would begin selling an electric sedan powered by lithium-ion batteries with an unthinkable 244-mile range. The Model S won't overtake Tesla's 125mph Roadster, but it will be nearly half the price, at $60,000, and made in America. We spoke with Musk about his push to make affordable high-performance electric cars and why hybrids have no future.

Q: Can you be successful selling an alternative-fuel car now that gas prices have dipped below $3 a gallon?
A: Absolutely. The cost difference between electric and gasoline is gigantic. When we started Tesla in 2003, gasoline was around $2.50. It takes 60 kilowatt-hours to charge the Roadster's battery. So at California's special rate for electric cars, currently seven cents a kilowatt-hour to charge at night, it costs roughly $5 to go 250 miles. And we're zero-emissions.

Q: But gas cars are still more affordable.
A: Today. Remember, in their early days, gasoline cars were really "toys for the rich." All technology gets optimized. The typical electric motor is 90 percent more efficient at converting energy into motion than the internal combustion engine. You get an overwhelming advantage in both carbon emissions and energy per mile.

Q: Why not go hybrid?
A: We looked closely at developing a hybrid, but we decided it's a red herring. If you stay purely electric or purely gasoline, you're going to make a better car. As soon as you try to split the difference, you have something that's neither fish nor fowl. A Prius is a weak gasoline car with a little bit of electric charge. And once you've used up the electric charge, you have an underpowered gasoline engine or a weak electric car.

Q: How will drivers recharge the battery pack in the Model S?
A: You'll head to a battery-swap station, drive your car onto rails that lock your car into position like at a car wash, and a customized forklift device will grab the pack from beneath the car, pull it out, and replace it with another pack. It'll take roughly five minutes -- less time than filling your gas tank. For a high-speed recharge, the car will also have onboard chargers that let you plug into any wall socket and charge up in 45 minutes.

Q: Tesla has delivered only 50 Roadsters. How do you plan to get 15,000 Model S cars out annually?
A: For the Roadster, we made a few architectural errors and lots of mistakes in our choice of suppliers. And we were developing the first version of a new technology. With the sedan, we already have the powertrain in a rolling prototype, so there's much less uncertainty around the technology. That said, the recent economic situation has forced us to push back production six months, to mid-2011.

Q: You run a green company. Would you say you live a green lifestyle?
A: I'm not too hardcore about being green. I think it leads to a very constrained life. I have the Roadster and a Porsche Turbo. But once the sedan comes out, I'll hand in the Porsche. Waste is not good, but we can't conserve our way to a solution. If everyone were a super-green conservationist, it would just delay the inevitable. We have to find sustainable means of producing and consuming energy.

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9 Comments

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jped99

12/15/08 at 10:51 am

Although Space-X should be applauded for their achievement, the “first privately developed rocket into orbit” isn’t exactly true. Space-X has recently changed their PR to “first privately developed liquid rocket.” The Pegasus rocket was privately developed back in the 90’s and has had numerous orbiting missions.

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tiredtubes

12/15/08 at 10:13 pm

Last time I checked you can only get 1800 watts out of "any wall outlet".15 amps x 120v....that is 1.8 kwh an hour...in 45 minutes you would get 1.35 kwh...not much toward a 60 kwh
capacity..Assuming 75% system efficiency it would require approx 80 kwh input to fully charge a depleted 60 kwh battery pack...this would require 44 Hours , not minutes, from a maxed out 15 amp 120 v outlet... What gives ?

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i_am_a_nerd

12/16/08 at 6:48 pm

the tesla roadster is awsome, but it is reativly inefficcient to my standards. it seems like a lot of power, but its really nothing. and having a nuclear reactor implanted in the hood of a car would be stupid, of course. but that is the amount of power that would be needed to match an all-electric cars performence to todays gasoline cars. engineers need to find a way more effecive battery and power distribution system. ive been working on a design of a generator system that has no moving mechanical parts. it seems to be better that a lot of other battery systems! thats what we need for this guys plan for electric cars. something like that!

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MatrixPerv

12/17/08 at 7:37 am

All I have to say is this is the future...

http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/videos/view/56-Electric-Drag-Racing

Go there to see what electric cars are really capable of doing!

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T-buzz

12/17/08 at 9:03 am

Hybrid cars became very poplar with rising gas prices, and these plug-in models can get even better gas mileage. There's a battery in the rear of the vehicle that's charged by simply plugging an extension cord into an outlet.
thebuzznew.com

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yewtzeee

from bayan lepas, penanag

12/21/08 at 10:28 pm

if you type electric car in google search engine, tesla motor is the first one,it seems like this guy is very powerful.

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JRIAM1945

12/28/08 at 12:57 pm

Its not a question of electric versus fuel (Chemical), rather the efficiency. Fuel is still 100x the energy/lb of electrical batteries. My compnay is intent to market a high efficiency low cost multifuel (Biofuel and fossil fuel) engine (MFSD)which in well designed aerodynamic cars will achieve 150 MPG. It is the combustion engine close equivalent to an electric motor. An MFSD powered Tesla, without its battery weigth will outperform its battery brother. Because of its high HP to weigth ration, the "plug in" concept is reversed with MFSD. A ultralight weigth MFSD Fuel Plugin could provide literally unlimited range, and power a Tesla to the next electric refueling station effectively on diesel; or recharge its batteries when not in use, at night, while parking etc. Thus, best of both worlds, an EV which can be traditionally self contained, and recharged on Diesel (biofuel, Home Heating oils, Jet-A, etc). (MFSD charging scheduled by computer). JayR CEO Sannerprojects Inc JRIAM1945@aol.com; Sannerwind@gmail.com

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alancj05

02/19/09 at 4:55 am

"For a high-speed recharge, the car will also have onboard chargers that let you plug into any wall socket and charge up in 45 minutes."

When I read this in the January issue I was floored that the Tesla people were still spewing this kind of nonsense. I've heard this from them before but was surprised to read it in Popular "Science." Surely someone knows ohm's law down there? I've only known it by heart since I was ten...

Lets make it simple... any "ordinary wall outlet" can only deliver 80% of the breaker capacity without risk of tripping after awhile. So a 15 amp circuit can do 12 amps. At 120 V that's 12x120= 1440 watts. Or 1.08 kWh of energy in 45 minutes. That is a factor of 55 below the 60 kWh of energy a depleted tesla battery can hold. So to deliver that amount of energy in only 45 minutes you need to be able to draw at least 80,000 watts of power from that normal outlet. That's 667 amps if the you are running at 120 volts. Note that many homes have a 200 amp breaker for that whole house, which is only 48000 watts that you could possibly draw from a standard house hold hookup. It is simply NOT POSSIBLE to recharge in 45 minutes, and I would be surprised if you could recharge the battery that fast safety in any case.

So It would take 65 hours to recharge that battery if your charging circuitry is 85% efficient and draws 12 amps. In order to recharge overnight you need to have a SPECIAL outlet installed in your garage, of the same capacity that many electric clothes driers would require. With that, you could recharge in 7.5 hours, if you drew 40 amps on a 240 volt circuit (9.6 kW's). That would be doable in most homes.

Here's an even better way to look at it... spending 45 minutes charging from a normal wall outlet would get you just another 4 miles down the road, a tad bit short of the 240 mile range. Have I beat this horse enough? Can we all now agree that the Tesla CEO is either ignorant or a liar? It's not like this is terribly complicated. It took me 5 minutes to calculate that stuff but reading the claim was an instant howler. So my vote is that Elon Musk is just another liar. Apparently the guys down at PopSci are just ignorant, since they didn't follow that answer with "are you insane?" or "how do you plan on drawing hundreds of amps from a wall outlet?"

-Alan

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onze07

03/06/09 at 9:33 pm

this car looks too much like the koenigsegg ccx...copy muchh