Birthing a car is always difficult, and Tesla has seen its share of problems. The biggest hurdle to getting its all-EV Roadsters in customers' garages has been the transmission. Initially the company wanted to have a two-speed unit, but the unit from its first supplier, X-Trac, wasn't durable enough. Tesla then contracted Magna to help build a tranny, before a final try at designing its own transmission also ended abortively. In the end, to get cars rolling out the door, changes were made to the motor so that a single-speed transmission could be fitted.
Magna doesn't seem upset that it was just a stepping stone – that's business. What the company would like, however, is to get paid for the work it performed. Magna is also telling Tesla "told you so" by claiming to have suggested a single-speed unit back in 2006. To recover its $5.6 million, Magna has filed suit in San Mateo to force the issue, which coincidentally comes not long after Tesla filed suit against Fisker, which it initially hired to designs its next product, the WhiteStar sedan. What goes around comes around, we guess. The legal wranglings haven't yet made a dent in Tesla's operations, but Magna's lawsuit could bolster the case of frustrated buyers who have yet to receive their cars, should those customers decide to also take to the courts.
Update: Tesla VP Darryl Siry contacted us to clarify the issue with the original X-Trac gearbox. Apparently the problem was not one of actual durability of the transmission itself. Tesla evidently spec'ed out a two speed unit with no clutches. The design intent was to do clutch-less shifting and manage the torque output of the motor during the shifts. Unfortunately the rotational inertia of the motor made this plan unworkable as the torque output couldn't be changed fast enough. According to Siry there were never actually any mechanical failures of the X-Trac transmission, it was simply a matter of Tesla not being able to get their control strategy to work adequately with the hardware. Subsequently Tesla contracted Magna to develop a dual clutch two speed gearbox. Unfortunately, this is the design that had durability issues leading to Tesla's ultimate decision to revise the motor for more power and go with a single speed unit for production. The vehicles running with the interim single speed gearbox are actually using the original X-Trac box with the lower gear locked out (for prototypes) or removed entirely (early production cars). - Sam
As we recently reported, rumors have been swirling regarding Henrik Fisker's involvement with Tesla Motors and its upcoming electric sedan prototype known as the WhiteStar. As is often the case, there's apparently some truth to the scuttlebutt, as Tesla has filed a lawsuit claiming that Fisker Automotive is using stolen design ideas from Tesla sourced when Fisker Coachbuild was employed by the young EV automaker for the styling of its sedan.
According to Tesla chairman Elon Musk, "We could not use the Fisker styling. The styling was substandard compared to what he unveiled for his product. He gave us an inferior work product, and it's obvious why." In the process of working for Tesla, the lawsuit contends that Henrik Fisker and a few of his associates stole design ideas and confidential information related to the design of hybrid and electric cars. Fisker has since announced his upcoming Karma hybrid-electric sedan. Tesla seeks to have Fisker Automotive stop using any design ideas garnered from its relationship with Tesla, and any money paid to Fisker Coachbuild returned along with other unspecified damages.
Click above for high-res live gallery of the Fisker Karma
A site of which this blogger previously wasn't aware is reporting that the body of the soon-to-be-revealed Tesla WhiteStar sedan was originally penned by one Henrik Fisker. According to Street Import Online, a mole deep within San Carlos has spilled the beans that the designer who recently unveiled his own plug-in hybrid super sedan, the Fisker Karma (above), had previously been contracted by Tesla Motors for its second product. According to Street Import Online, Tesla had backed out of a deal to have Fisker create the body for the WhiteStar electric sedan but kept the design.
We contacted Tesla's Marketing VP Darryl Siry to verify the accuracy of this story, and Siry declined to either confirm or deny the report, which you can interpret however you choose. If the story is true, it may well have prompted Fisker to pursue building a similar vehicle under his own name, which led to the Karma. The WhiteStar sedan is planned as a battery electric sedan, although Tesla has acknowledged that is also developing a range-extended electric hybrid version. Regardless of who actually drew the WhiteStar, Tesla has said it plans to reveal the sedan's design later this Spring after it begins delivering a steady stream of EV Roadsters. Thanks for the tip, Jose!
Update: Our own sources indicate that Tesla is not using the Fisker design for the final car. Other than having four doors and a similar number of wheels, the Whitestar is completely different from the Fisker proposal.
Click above for a high-res gallery of the Tesla Roadster.
Tesla's president and CEO, Ze'ev Drori, made the announcement today on his corporate blog that production of the Roadster has officially begun. Tesla originally set a date of March 17th for "regular" production of the Roadster, and the folks in Hethel have met that obligation today. From here, Tesla intends to get started on its retail efforts, with both a Los Angeles location and a Menlo Park facility for sales and service for the 600 roadsters expected to be built over the course of 2008. Tesla is hoping that they'll be able to produce around 100 Roadsters each month, up from its current level of one to five cars per week. All the models being produced this year have already been spoken for, so any orders that come in will be sold as 2009 models.
Efficiency is a large stumbling block if you're looking for a way to replace gasoline. It's pretty hard to better such an exceptional fuel, and several alternatives show promise but are nagged by inefficiencies or cost, and usually both. Nanotech to the rescue; it may soon be possible to produce your own hydrogen at home cheaply and easily, and NiMH batteries and fuel cells also stand to become less expensive and offer much better performance. With claims like that, QuantumSphere might well be selling fairy dust, but the Portland, Oregon-based company has developed a nanoparticle coating that may end up being the key to making alternative fuels actually viable.
QuantumSphere's catalytic nanoparticle coatings have 1,000 times the surface area of traditional materials, which means that more catalytic action can be housed in the same space. It's the the highly reactive nature of the coatings that allows cheap home electrolysis, also boding well for replacing precious metals like platinum in fuel cells with a coated piece of stainless steel. QuantumSphere's president Kevin Maloney claims that his company's technology makes electrolysers so efficient that they can supply hydrogen on demand while driving. The technology will roll out later this year in a battery that uses a coated cathode for a five-fold increase in energy density, which translates into a 320-percent power gain over alkaline cells. If things go QuantumSphere's way, we won't be paying $100,000 for the Tesla Roadster in a few years, and it will have an even better range than already promised.
Last Friday, Tesla chairman Elon Musk took delivery of the first production Roadster, which carries the name P1 (Production vehicle 1). The black coupe was flown in from Hethel, England, where all Teslas are being built alongside the Roadster's cousin, the Lotus Elise. When the Roadster arrived at the start-up's R&D facility in San Carlos, California, it was pushed into the garage and had its Thailand-produced battery pack installed. After the battery was fitted and charged, Musk led a pack of four other Roadsters on a quick drive and AutoblogGreen was able to procure a video of the run. For those of you who wanted to hear how the Tesla Roadster sounds while accelerating, we've embedded the video after the jump.
Tesla Motors has been getting a lot of press in recent months, be it from First Drives or the shifts in the company's hierarchy. However, even with increasing oil prices, the all electric market remains a small niche. The limited vehicle range, long charging time and lack of charging infrastructure for those who park on the street have left a sizable chunk of potential customers out of reach. Now it seems that Tesla Motors will no longer alienate the general market with their product lineup. They have announced that the Whitestar Sedan, in development for release sometime around the end of 2009, will be offered with two powertrain options. One choice will be the familiar all electric version with an expected range somewhere between 150 and 200 miles and the other choice will be an extended-range vehicle aka REV.
The REV Whitestar will have the ability to go 40 to 50 miles off a fully charged battery pack. It will also feature a small gasoline engine that will have the task of recharging the batteries while the vehicle is in use. With a full tank of fuel the REV should see a range of 400 miles before it needs a trip to the gas station. Obviously, this is a similar setup to GM's Chevrolet Volt concept. The Whitestar Sedan will be aimed at a different market than the Volt though. Luxury manufactures, such as BMW and Lexus, are the intended competition and fittingly, the REV Whitestar's price will fall somewhere between $50,000 and $70,000 depending on the size of the battery pack.
click above for more high-res shots of the Tesla Roadster
One thing that's been called into question is whether or not the Tesla Roadster will make a viable track day vehicle, but until now, there was one major hurdle for Tesla's engineers to overcome: cooling. The motor currently equipped in the Roadster is air-cooled, which wouldn't hold up to the rigors of track duty. But Tesla is working on a liquid-cooled version that wouldn't cause the power electronics module (PEM) to default into limp-home mode and subsequently cut power if heat became an issue.
The possibility of a track-ready version is now officially in the cards. By utilizing the new liquid-cooled motor and removing about half of the batteries found in the standard Roadster, Tesla is considering releasing a variant called the Roadster 120, with the number referring to the projected range. Nixing around 500 pounds from the curb weight is going to do wonders for acceleration and handling, while simultaneously reducing the load on the motor.
Naturally, none of this is going to come to fruition until Tesla starts cranking out the "standard" version on March 17th, but when we talked to a few Tesla execs while evaluating the Roadster, they mentioned that their car was trying to appeal to two types of individuals: people who are only interested in EVs and don't care about performance, and drivers looking for a quick, engaging coupe that just happens to be electrically powered to boot. A track-friendly version would be of particular appeal to the latter and we can't wait to give it a go around one of the great tracks within driving distance of Tesla's South Bay facilities.
The team at Tesla Motors has been hard at work attempting to prove that they can deliver a performance-minded electric vehicle to the world, but along the way they've hit a few bumps in the road. On top of recent organizational changes, one of the major hold ups on delivering the Roadster has been transmission issues. Their initial thought is to build the first production run with temporary single-speed boxes that will not live up to the proposed performance numbers, then modify the delivered cars once a solution arrives. Now it looks like the road ahead is getting smoother. It turns out that early adopters might not have too long to wait before they get their hands on the real Roadster. Tesla is reporting that through research and development of the WhiteStar sedan they happened to run across a solution for the drop top. They are dubbing it DriveTrain 1.5 and it should be submitted to testing next week.
DriveTrain 1.5 doesn't appear to be an easy fix, as it involves replacing the Roadster's entire powertrain. The electric motor is to be changed from an air-cooled motor to a more powerful liquid cooled unit and the power electronics will also be altered to supply the necessary increased current flow to the new motor. This adjustment will allow for the use of a single-speed transmission with a reduced gear design. The transmission is being developed and produced with the assistance of engineering firm Ricardo, which produces, among other things, the Bugatti Veyron's dual clutch gearbox.
Michael Corleone said it best, "It's not personal, it's business." There's been a lot of turmoil in the Silicon Valley hills lately as the Tesla Motors saga continues. Departed founder Martin Eberhard reports on his blog at TeslaFounders.com that the reorganization has been a "bloodbath" and questions the wisdom of the corporate machinations. Tesla's Daryl Siry contends that the company needed to tighten up its organization and refocus on the goal of actually delivering cars versus burning investment dollars. It's a lot like what went on in the nascent personal computer industry 30 years ago: a passionate team of visionaries assembles around a common ideal, and eventually it becomes a business, at which point pain ensues prior to success, or failure occurs. Tesla intends to remain independent, and now wants to move forward with solving delivery holdups.
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