Tesla Roadster

The Tesla Roadster is a hydrogen fuel cell powered car based upon the lotus elite. Manufactured by Tesla and unveiled just over a year ago at an invite only conference. The aim was to build an eco friendly car with reasonable performance. With the recent fears about global warming and the ozone layer most company's have a “eco friendly” development program. Another key factor in the development of such technologies is also the fear that our fossil fuels are going to have run out some time within the next 75-125 years. With that in mind most large car manufactures are looking for an alternate power source to run their cars. Ranging from water, air, electricity and hydrogen. So far there has been no definitive answer to which will be the next main fuel for cars because of technical hold backs and the technologies being in the early stages of development. The Tesla Roadster its self was in development for around 2 years based off current technologies that Lotus had provided them for a base of the engine systems. The status of this project is now completed but research is still actively being carried out to improve the engine and car. The “Tesla Roadster” is the only car that Tesla has developed and there have been no other announcements of any new projects. The current model of car is the most efficient car when compared to other hydrogen only cars as well as hybrid cars. This is shown below.

Sustainable Technology issue
The issue with vehicles is that they give off a large amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and this is contributing to the “green house” effect and slowly eroding the ozone layer. The Tesla Roadster starts to deal with this issue as it has 0 emissions and uses very little power to charge its self up from the mains. Although car emissions have been dropping they have not gotten low enough to stop worrying. Average car emissions in 2007 were down 13% on 1997. The next image shows how if the population keeps growing and CO2 emissions continue the same the kind of position we would be at by 2030.

Whilst not all the emissions are from cars, a lot of it is. There is also a lot of emissions from things such as aircraft which these kinds of technologies will help to improve. Oil and fuels derived from it account for around 50% of the worlds CO2 emissions, which is a serious problem.

Potential Political and Financial Effects
With global warming being such a huge issue at the moment governments are putting a lot of pressure on company's to become more “eco friendly” as well as pressures and even suggestions of banning petrol cars some time in the next 30-40 years. Tax is now based upon how environmentally friendly your car is, giving drivers yet another reason to switch over to a more eco friendly car. Not only is the tax affected by the amount of CO2 given out by your car but it also affects the cost of some parking permits in certain areas of the country. It can cost up to £25 to enter London for a day. Some political figures are trying to encourage their supporters by owning a “green” vehicle to show their support for the new regulations coming in.

The reduced dependency on oil would have a massive impact on both financial and political areas because of oil dependency. If the need for oil is lessened and a suitable alternative is found it would have a huge impact on the economy. Oil is a massive business and politics plays a big part in it.
With the cost of “green” cars still being far higher than their petrol counterpart a lot of people are reluctant to make the switch. Eco friendly cars on average save you around £50 a week in fuel costs but the extra £7,000+ upon purchase does not really even out and is certainly slowing the uptake of these new cars.

Possible technical alternatives
There is much debate about which alternative power source is the best and at this point in time there is no definitive answer although hydrogen fuel cells seem to be creeping ahead in performance and the mileage to emissions ratio. The other leading technologies consist of liquid hydrogen fuel and the hybrid cars using a mixture of either petrol and electricity or petrol and liquid hydrogen fuel and electricity.

Potential effects that this project may have for sustainable development from a national or global perspective.
In comparison to a normal petrol engine a hydrogen engine is very efficient. It equates out to be around 135mpg compared to most petrol engines having around 30mpg. With the range of other electric cars being around 60 miles the telsa roadster puts them to shame. It has a range of 260 miles. To improve the efficiency telsa has come up with a few energy saving techniques such as “Regenerative braking” which means as you apply the breaks it first of all lowers the power output to the engine but on top of that it takes some of the energy used in braking and turns it back into energy and puts it back into the battery in the same kind of way a dynamo works on conventional cars.

With these new technologies and techniques in mind the new engine design by Tesla brings the alternative powered car one step closer to reality. It is far more efficient compared to any other alternative or hybrid car currently on the market. With the suggestions of banning petrol cars sometime in the next 30 to 40 years these kind of advancements are very important in making these kind of ideas and legislations reality.

If the braking technique was applied to some of the current hybrid cars it would improve their performance and help break away from needing so much power to run. The average charge of a current hybrid car would last up to 60 miles, which in reality is not very effective at all.

My opinion
In my opinion hydrogen fuel cell cars are going to be surfacing more and more in the coming years with many big manufactures already working on a prototype. So far it seems that the hydrogen fuel cell will become the dominant alternative power source for vehicles in the future. Out of all the prototype vehicles it seems to be the most efficient but while it releases 0 emissions its self it requires power from the mains so it would still contribute to CO2 emissions although with the efficiency being so high the figures are far more attractive that current vehicles.

Conclusion
Tesla is part of a new breed of company who's sole purpose is to further the technology that will drive the push towards a more environmentally friendly vehicle market. Unlike most other companys they have no range of petrol cars and thus less distractions in their improvements to their engine systems. They have achieved a consumption to mileage ratio higher than any other alternative power source car, as demonstrated in the first graph on this report.

[1] Tesla Motors(2007) Retrives on January 9th 2008 from http://teslamotors.com/
[2] European Fuel Cell Forum Retrivied on January 9th 2008 from http://www.efcf.com/
[3] CRF - Hydrogen Engine , retrived on january 9th from http://www.ca.sandia.gov/crf/research/combustionEngines/PFI.php