Tesla may get into the gas station business
When AutoblogGreen interviewed Tesla Motors CEO Martin Eberhard a couple of months ago, Martin emphasized that they were intent on creating a sustainable business out of building sustainable mobility cars. With Job 1 for the Roadster coming in a few months Tesla is now working on expanding its potential revenue streams. Earlier this week they announced a new division to sell their battery pack technology to other carmakers starting with Norway's TH!NK.
If they are successful in building battery powered cars and the technology spreads to other carmakers, we won't need so many gas pumps but drivers will still need to top up. Tesla has announced a $561,000 grant from the California Energy Commission to develop public charging stations. They will be working on 16kW stations that are UL approved and can be used by drivers at public locations to charge their electric vehicles. Grants also went to UC-Berkeley, UC-Davis and the Electric Power Research Institute.
[Source: Tesla Motors via AutoblogGreen]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joel 8:15AM (5/26/2007)
Shouldn't that be "charging station," not "gas station," if Tesla doesn't plan on selling petrol?
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JR 8:27AM (5/26/2007)
I agree....gas station implies the sale of gasoline.
What's up with the recent inaccuracies? I've been seeing a lot of "note" and "updated". Are you guys tired from the refresh?
(P.s. I am a daily reader but I usually don't comment, I love your site.)
Alex Nunez 10:01AM (5/26/2007)
In fairness to Sam, guys, tongue is planted firmly in cheek on the "gas station" reference, especially since he reports directly on the fact that the plan is indeed for charging stations.
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Deezee 6:22PM (5/26/2007)
Woo hoo. Glad I live in Cali.
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Barney 10:23PM (5/26/2007)
Hopefully California will this time, have enough electrical power to manage the extra flux. Another brown out will send people walking home.
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Charlie 1:40PM (5/28/2007)
Doesn't it take hours to charge these types of batteries? What if they had a station where they could simply swap your batteries out for newly charged ones? Is that a model that could work?
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Mike Phillips 10:25AM (5/31/2007)
Do these proposed charging stations, financed by tax payer dollars, have outputs on them to charge other electric vehicles that use Avcon or small paddle adapters as well? My concern is that this grant will be spent only to make charging for Tesla vehicles easier, to the exclusion of all other electric vehicles. -Mike
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