The Emerging Electric Vehicles and Tesla.

Ruipeng Liu BUS 355 Appcology

This essay deals with the emergence and maturation of the latest technology in electric vehicles,

specifically Tesla and its models. I will begin with the current situation & solutions of

automobile industry as background, and will then discuss the emergence of electric-powered

vehicles manufacturers such as Tesla, and how they will pose to a threat to the traditional

automotive makers, and probably even dominating the industry in the near future.

Overview of the Current Automotive Industry

As we all know, the automotive industry has an incredibly long history, tracking back to as far as

1860s and 70s, starting with the development of the gasoline engine. A quite interesting fact is

that gasoline-powered cars haven't become dominant until around 1920s, with the discovery of

large petroleum area which led to wide coverage of affordable gasoline. The automobile industry

has been so ever since then, even now. However, with the recent potent re-emergence of electric

vehicles(will be abbreviated as EV), the 100-year long industry began to shake up a little bit.

EV’s Lengthy History & Why It Hasn’t Succeeded Before

What’s interesting is that EV is not actually “emerging”, and the introduction EVs was actually

even far ahead that of any gasoline-powered cars, with the first model built by Slovak-Hungarian

priest Ányos Jedlik in 1827. Until the discovery of the large petroleum area, EV had dominated

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the automotive market along with steam-powered vehicles, with 38% and 40% in market share

each in the US.

However, with such a long span of history(over 150 years), EV was only brought back to

people’s attention recently, yet again but stirring up their greatest passion ever, since the

legendary entrepreneur Elon Musk announced his new company Tesla, an all-electric car maker.

During EV's long span of history, there has been many intermittent attempts and experiments

with EV models, but all got put aside eventually. The fundamental reasons are two-fold.

The first reason is that gas-powered cars quickly caught up because of the reduction of costs by

the initiation of Henry Ford’s mass production, and the reduction of oil costs due to the discovery

of large petroleum areas.

The second reason is innate with EV, which is that the battery technologies in the EVs has long

been very immature in terms of durability and reliability issues. Until 1859 with the invention of

the lead-acid battery, Rechargeable batteries that provided a reliable means for storing electricity

on a vehicle was not an option. In 1920s, because of EVs lack of range(30-40 miles) and low

speed(no more than 15-20 mph), they were mainly limited to urban uses. Then with years EV has

not had a major revolution. In 1990s there has been a revival of interests, with General Motors

unveiled the GM Impact electric concept car, with a stated range of 70 to 100 miles. However, it

was still far less attractive compared to other fuel-powered cars’ performances at the time, adding

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that fuel-powered cars were still pretty cheap option to go with. The EV1 program was officially

canceled by GM in late 2003.

Why Tesla and EV Now?

So why does Tesla enter this controversial industry now, and is even enjoying some kind of

successes competing with traditional car manufacturers so far, after all those years of countless

EV failures? One of the most important reasons is that Tesla was among the first to use lithium

ion batteries instead of lead-acid batteries EVs used to equip with, which has advanced in a very

fast pace over the years thanks to the rise in consumer electronics industry, to allow full-sized EV

to be propelled comparable range as gasoline-powered cars do. Over the years, Lithium batteries

have been made safe, can be recharged in minutes instead of hours, and lasted even longer than

the typical vehicles.

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Another critical factor is Tesla’s innovative battery management system(BMS), which helps set it

apart from other EVs and achieve great range. While the other EV manufactures all use large flat

lithium-ion battery pack, Tesla uses cell made in the common 18650 cylindrical format, which is

the same format, but not the same chemistry, as used in most laptops. Tesla cells have about 50%

more energy density than other EV cells, which helps account for a Tesla’s long range and higher

performance with smaller size of battery(reference from nerdwall.com).

Beside the innate reasons with improved battery technology, Tesla and EVs in general have been

gathering a lot of attention from the public because of some external forces too. First, the

continuing spikes on oil cost have kept raising the cost of owning a fuel-powered car for the

consumers. In the recent years, oil prices kept climbing up, and even came with incessant

shortage among many areas. The virtues that initially helped the emergence of fuel-powered

vehicles are shaken now, while the EVs began to switch position and shift to the cheaper side.

Tesla’s Advantages Against Petroleum-powered Cars

The efficient and mature battery technology has allowed Tesla to reach some very impressive

features, making its EV more reliable, more durable, have better performance, cheaper, and even

safer.

More Reliable & Durable:

For the first time ever, Tesla model S reaches a range from 208-270 miles per charge as an EV,

which is not much different from gasoline-powered cars. This is an exponential improvement

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from previous & other current EVs, among which the highest could only provide a 70-100 miles

per charge. Tesla even promised to increase the range to around 315 miles per charge in the next

year, and that number will keep going up in the following years, due to the further advancements

in the lithium ion battery technology. This will seriously challenge the traditional petroleum-

powered vehicles, as range is one of their few major advantages left over EVs. Once people’s

“range anxiety” over EVs got greatly alleviated, Tesla will be a serious threat to the traditional

car manufacturers and even become the lead in the new vehicle era.

The model S can also charge to 80% as quickly as 40 minutes using public superchargers, which

greatly alleviate another strong factor why people aren’t willing to own an EV. In addition, Tesla

has covered extensive areas with superchargers to guarantee customers are covered wherever

they are. Below is a map of its superchargers’ locations to show you how extensive these

superchargers are covering.

On the right is a list of comparison

between Tesla and other EVs range

performance(credit to

businessinsider.com). As you can see,

Tesla even blows all of its current

competitors away in terms of range,

doubling and even tripling other

manufacturers’ products.

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Greater performance:

The highly efficient electric motor gets Tesla much better performance, even compared with fuel-

powered cars, with a mind-blowing acceleration a 3.2 seconds from 0-60mph, which is the level

of some current supercars. This advantage is innate with EVs when compared with fuel-powered

cars, which are only able to exploit around 40% of efficiency due to the wasteful nature of their

combustion engines.

As a matter of fact, the Consumer Report, an authoritative rating platform, gives Tesla’s P85 S

model a rating of 99 out of 100, the highest it has ever given to a consumer vehicle. According to

the magazine, being electric isn’t hindering the car’s performance, it is what makes it so great

competing with all the other fuel-powered cars.

Cheaper:

EVs are most prevalently know for them being cheaper than petroleum-powered cars. This is so

in many sides. First, EVs are cheaper to maintain. According to newsweek.com, average annual

total costs for sedan is estimated to be around $8500. In Tesla, the number is eye-dropping. You

have the option of prepaying $1325 for 3 years’ inspection, $2100 for 4 years, and $4000 for 8

years. On average, that is around $500 yearly, a net $8000 saving per year. This is some

tremendous cost-saving, which means that even the expensive model S may appeal to some

customers of lower consumption level, as they will save tremendously the following years of

owning the car.

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Another obvious way in which EVs are cheaper is in terms of charging. Tesla has been providing

free charging in extensive areas to all Tesla owners. Although that “free-charging” policy is to

expire at the end of 2016, the charging fee is still many times cheaper than going to gas station.

Lastly, every new buyer will get massive subsidy in buying EVs, thanks to the government’s

push on sustainable energy movement. Customers in all states the US can get the $7500 tax

credit, plus further subsidy which differs by states. For example, if you buy a Tesla in California,

you will get an additional $2500 rebate. On the company-side, they are also rewarded with

massive tax discounts and benefits. This helps further excite more companies and attentions in

the industry, and drive further innovations.

Safer:

Among the above virtues, Tesla is also the “safest car in history”, based on National Highway

Safety Administration(NHTSA). NHTSA gives Tesla’s model S a full-5 star safety rating at

every subcategory. This is so because of several reasons. First, the tremendous power of electric

motor allows the vehicle to employ a much heavier body material, boron steel. It is much heavier

than aluminum, which are employed by the majority of current car manufacturers, but also

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provides great strength to the body. Second, the lack of combustion engine allows the vehicle an

extensive cushion area in the front side, in case of an accident. This helped tremendously in

consuming the energy during accidents.

A Look Into The Future & Competition

As a conclusion with some personal thoughts, I will argue that electric vehicles can become

prevalent even sooner than we thought. I think cars being mainly electric-powered is clearly

arriving, as the current Tesla models are surpassing petroleum-powered cars in every aspects of a

car, performance, acceleration, safety, etc., as I have argued above. The only few drawbacks

holding it back to the customers are the range issues and charging time innate with batteries,

which have been improved in an rapid pace. With the current range of 208-270 miles per charge,

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that number could be improved to around 600 in just 2 years.

Dramatic efforts and advancement in the industry have further accelerated this transition.

Let’s look forward to what will happen when the Tesla model 3, the company’s much cheaper

EV model, land in the consumer market. I cannot be more excited to see.

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Reference & Research Sources

• "History of the Electric Vehicle." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_electric_vehicle

• @evobsession. "5 Reasons Teslas Trump Every Other Electric Car." EV Obsession. N.p., 10 Feb. 2016. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. • http://evobsession.com/5-reasons-teslas-trump-every-other-electric-car-in-consumers-eyes/

• Skye Gould and Danielle Muoio and Danielle Muoio. "Tesla Destroys the Competition When It Comes to How Far Its Cars Go on One Charge." Business Insider. Business Insider, 07 Oct. 2015. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. • http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-versus-other-electric-cars-2015-9

• Thompson, Cadie. "Elon Musk Explains Why He Is so Confident Tesla's Batteries Are the Future." Business Insider. Business Insider, 01 Dec. 2015. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. • http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-on-teslas-battery-advantage-2015-11

• "What Makes Tesla's Batteries so Great?" What Makes Tesla's Batteries so Great? - Torque News. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. • http://www.torquenews.com/2250/what-makes-tesla-s-batteries-so-great

• "Video: The Tesla Model S Is Our Top-scoring Car." Product Reviews and Ratings - Consumer Reports. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. • http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/05/video-the-tesla-model-s-is-our-top-

scoring-car/index.htm

• "Automotive Industry in the United States." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry

• "Tesla Motors." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Motors

• Stoll, John D. "Tesla Unveils Electric-Car Battery With a 315-Mile Range." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 23 Aug. 2016. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. • http://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-unveils-battery-with-a-315-mile-range-1471981062?

mg=id-wsj

• Crew, Bec. "Tesla's Model S P85D Just Broke the Consumer Reports Ratings System." ScienceAlert. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. • http://www.sciencealert.com/tesla-s-model-s-p85d-just-broke-the-consumer-reports-ratings-

system

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• Desjardins, Jeff. "The Extraordinary Raw Materials in a Tesla Model S." Visual Capitalist. N.p., 31 Aug. 2016. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. • http://www.visualcapitalist.com/extraordinary-raw-materials-in-a-tesla-model-s/

• "Annual Cost to Own and Operate a Vehicle Falls to $8,698, Finds AAA | AAA NewsRoom." AAA NewsRoom. N.p., 07 Apr. 2016. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. • http://newsroom.aaa.com/2015/04/annual-cost-operate-vehicle-falls-8698-finds-aaa-

archive/

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