The Future of Transportation and Tesla
Tesla made into headlines last week thanks to its unorthodox approach to electric vehicles: Cybertruck, a electric pickup truck.
Source: Tesla website
It’s hard to look to this automobile without noticing its pointy and straight design. Its presentation caught people’s attention also because while Tesla CEO (Elon Musk) described its unbreakable windows, a man armed with a hammer hit the truck’s window to show its resistance to impact. To everyone’s surprise, the window shattered right in front of the CEO, who noted: “But it didn’t go through.”
While some people might think that Tesla’s reputation could be damaged, its image as the symbol of the future of locomotion is still very much intact. Why is that true? Why is Tesla so special? And why could it build one of the most important aspects of our future?
Fossil fuel’s days are numbered. As a non-renewable source of energy, there’s no way for the humanity to keep using it forever. One day the oil reserves will be scarce, and without an alternative, humanity will face an horrible fate. Also, burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse effect gas, which may contribute to global warming, changing our planet as we know it forever. According to United States Environmental Protection Agency, transportation releases 29% of greenhouse emissions. Changing the way we fuel our daily commuting is crucial to protect Earth.
While there are other interesting renewable sources of energy to fuel our cars (such as hydrogen cells, ethanol, and biodiesel) one of the most promising options are EV (Electrical Vehicles), which can easily be charged by renewable electric sources (wind, solar, or hydroelectric power). But why haven’t the EVs taken over the world?
The history of EVs is actually old, being first invented in around 1830s. However, due to technological limitations it was surpassed by gasoline-fueled cars. Believe or not, famous car manufatures produced electric cars in 1990s, such as Chrysler, Ford and Honda. However, the automakers were accused of making half hearted attempts just to satisfy California Air Resources Board, which was pushing companies to invest in cleaner vehicles. However, the technology wasn’t still the best, with inefficient batteries and electrical circuits, the cars couldn’t get much far compared to normal cars.
However, as technology advanced to make EVs more efficient, such vehicles started to become more than a concept, introducing many relevant cars, like Nissan Leaf. However, charging EVs in you normal 110/220V outlet is a nightmare, taking more than 10 hours to fully charge. Problems with charging infrastructure scared many consumers.
What makes Tesla special is that it is not only a automotive company, but also a energy company, developing better batteries and more ways to make EVs convenient, such as proprietary charging stations, energy generating solar panels, and huge batteries to store electric energy in. Also, its first EV models are rather expensive (The Roadster cost more than US$100,000), which helps as a test to create cheaper models aimed to larger markets while still offering a high performance car.
In conclusion, while other automakers are now willing to move towards a new way to fuel our lives, Tesla caught everyone’s attention paying close attention to charging infrastructure and offering a very high quality product, even with some accidents taking place sometimes.