Tesla Roadster Electric Car Project - Case Study Example

Your name School affiliation Date Tesla roadster electric car project Executive summary The tesla motor roadster is an electric car that uses the green technology in its operation. Manufactured by tesla motors, the vehicle has been proven of having a higher performance value and is a typical example of both engineering and business success. The core aim of the initiation of the project is a concern for the energy depletion; thus, the project significantly borrowed from the previous electrical works of Nikola Tesla. The report presented here would thus give an overview of the tesla roadster in relation to other vehicles as well as the operational modalities of the vehicle. Intended in the document is also a showcase on the advantages and disadvantages of operating the tesla roadster and the recommendations for the efficiency of electric vehicles. Introduction The tesla electric car project is an engineering brainwork project of Nikola tesla that was initiated in the late 19th century. The basic strong point of the project is the utilization of different engine system from other conventional cars that would make the care more efficient, easy to maintain and more reliable in terms of mobility and durability. Basing on the design information of the tesla car project, an electric vehicle is an automobile propelled by either a single or a multiple of electronic motors. The propulsion network utilizes electrical energy that is stored in the battery system of the vehicle(Voelcker, 2006). The electric motors that are the major components of the car engine give the vehicle the required energy that helps in the creation of a smoother and stronger acceleration. The tesla car is named after the electrical engineer Nikola tesla. The tesla car thereby uses the AC motor that had been descended directly from tesla’s original design in 1882. The project has thus led to a surge in the number of electric cars worldwide due to its business realisticness(Voelcker, 2006). Historical aspect of the electronic cars Not until 1859 did the use of rechargeable battery, system had been in use for the vehicles. The shift in the event was orchestrated by the invention of the lead acid accumulator battery that is capable of storage of electric power and was thus used for the ignition of vehicles. Thomas parker developed the idea and utilized it for innovations such as electrification of the London underground system. The immense interest in the fuel conservancy vehicles led Thomas to the experimentations with the electronically driven vehicles in as early as 1880’s. The development of electric vehicles was at the same time developed as a move to reduce the excessive pollution effects that had engulfed London and was the brainchild of the gasoline consuming automobiles. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, electricity was widely used for propulsion of machines and industrial tools. During this golden age, the manufacturers of vehicles turned to the idea of the possibility of utilizing electricity for the propulsion of vehicles. Nevertheless, this never came to be as there were advances in the technology of the gasoline combustion engines making the gasoline driven cars equally comfortable and efficient. The adoption of the use of gasoline in the golden age dealt the electric car project a great blow that thereafter derailed the development of the project (Musk, 2014). During the period of World War II, several European nations made experimentations with the production of the electric cars. Nevertheless, several of these projects came to a stagnation on one hand due to the immense nature of funds and labor that the war consumed from the manufacturing company and, on the other hand, due to the demand of quick engineering projects that could deliver faster results in the war. Gasoline in this instance equally took the day as the best alternative means of providing reliability and efficiency in driving engines that could be used for combat purposes. In the year 1955, the United States air pollution control act was one piece of legislation that was intended to regulate the pollution that was caused as a result of gasoline usage. The law was thus in the later dates amended to in cooperate the pollution caused by the gasoline vehicles. The amendment of this law to incorporate vehicles gave a great boost to the American motors corporation and the Sonotone Corporation in their plans for the manufacturing of a vehicle that was to be powered by a self-recharging battery as a prototype of the electric vehicle project. In 1966, the United States congress became more concerned with the deteriorating air quality and thus passed the electric vehicle development act. The development was thus to elicit research by the universities and laboratories. Within the same time duration, Enfield autos won a competition by the electronic board for the production of the Enfield thunderbolt(Brain, 2009). With the news of a possibility in the functionality of the electric cars, the American population began giving the electronic car project a positive view in as early as 1970’s while their European counterparts did not give the project much of their concern. A global renewed interest in the electric cars was brought about by the 1970,' 1980’s perceived energy crisis, and each nation made an attempt of utilizing their energy resources in the best manner possible. The conservation modality of this energy thus entailed minimization of the gasoline consumption rate by the automobile. California air resource board wedged a push for more fuel efficient and low pollutant vehicles. This resulted to the manufacture of several vehicle brands that were consumers of electric fuel(Brain, 2009). In the year 2004, the California tesla motors began its developmental project as a result of global economic melt down in the late 19th century. The melt down led to an increase in the call for the abolition of fuel-wasting engine technology and to favor green energy. In the first of their chain of production, the tesla motors produced the tesla roadster, a model that was delivered to the customers for the first time in 2008. The selling of the initial market project increased tremendously covering international markets with approximately thirty-one countries to serve. Tesla motors had sold more than 3000 roadster vehicle models as per in the month of May 2012. Full scope review of the project Like most of the modern electric vehicles, the tesla roadster is a battery electric car. The initial public display of the car was done in in 2006 at Santa Monica California, and the San Francisco international show that was held in November 2006 was the first show that the tesla roadster was shown. After the delivery of the first model of the car in 2008, the company embarked on the manufacture of 500 similar models of the vehicle in 2009. The electric car that was produced by the company has the capability of making an acceleration of 0-97 kilometers per hour within 3.7 seconds. This was an indication on the efficiency and reliability of the car in consideration to speed. The vehicle was then upgraded to the production of the 2010 model year roadster. The upgrading work included the installation of a push button gear section including the executive interior of exposed carbon fiber(Fletcher, 2011). The new design of the car produced in 2010 equally included a lock button, a centrally located video display screen that was purposed to monitor the real data of the vehicle in relation to the speed, energy consumptions and any possible technicalities that might accrue. Before the development of the tesla roadster, the company took the initiative of licensing the AC propulsion EV power system and the charging which integrated the charging of the electronics with the inverter. This move helped the company in the reduction in a mass complexity and the cost of recharging of the car batteries, which would have been an eminent development in the event that a different company cared to register the charging and the inverting systems under their patency(Berdichevsky, Kelty, Straubel, & Toomre, 2007). For the recharging purposes, the company thereby designed and built an own power electronics, motor and other components that in cooperated the silencing technology from the AC system. Maintaining a competitive edge in the market necessitated tesla to entered a partnership with the lotus, which is a British sports carmaker. The agreement was made in 2005. Lotus was thus charged with the responsibility of providing advice on the designing and development of the car. Lotus, on the other hand, was responsible for the assembly of the produced vehicle parts in a bid to provide a wider market base for the company both in the American and the European economies. Production of the tesla roadster The production of the tesla roadster cars reached 100 mark by January of 2010. The propulsion framework of the car is an American model, while the body panel of the car came from Sotira that is a French supplier. The Sotira Company supplies the body parts of the tesla roadster through the lotus company. The supply chain is thus geared towards maintenance of a wider market of the product through a sense of ownership of the production by several states. Of all the components that makeup the production of the tesla roadster, about six present of these components are shared with the lotus. The shared components include suspension components, dashboard components, some tires, the airbag and the windshield(Berdichevsky et al., 2007). The single speed gearbox of the tesla roadster is made in Detroit by auburn hills to the specification of tesla while the breaks and the air bag is made by Siemens that is a German company. As previously stated, the tesla roadster was made with the market target in vision; thus, the production procedure was attempted to in cooperate all the major world economic powers both in America and in Europe. Improvement of the tesla roadster The first model of the tesla roadster transmission that enables the car to accelerate at a speed of from 0-90km/h in less than four seconds. The car was reviewed and reported having a shorter life expectancy that only could last for fewer than the anticipated miles as per re initial manufacturing objectives. The first of the transmission suppliers for the tesla roadster car was incapable of producing the quality transmission model for the gearshift as pertaining to the quality desired by the car developmental plan(Halliday, 2009b). The tesla motor thus announced in 2007 plan for a shift the initial tesla roadster with the transmission lock into the second gear that is enabled to achieve the desired acceleration with efficiency. To maintain its reputation, the company accepted to change the original transmission for the earlier produced cars in order to achieve the desired goal. The distance-covered range of the care per unit mile was again reduced from 394 to 356 kilometers. The reduction of the range was thus attributed to the failure of the equipment calibration in the laboratory that conducted the first car test. The production timeline for tesla roadster In the initial two months of production, tesla produced three roadsters (P3, P4 and P5). The product of P1 and P2 were constructed prior to the start of the regular building and production series. By the end of the year 2008, the tesla company had delivered more than twenty-seven cars to the customers. With the development of new and better transmission system, the production continued with very minimum technicalities and the production timeline was estimated to reach twenty cars per week by the end of 2008 and to increase to forty cars per week by the mid-2009. The tesla roadster production managed to achieve the company objective as per the discretion of the production timeline. In the April of 2009, three hundred and twenty of the tesla roadster had been produced and were up for consumption(Halliday, 2009a).in this regard therefore, it meant with the improvement in technology, it would take a day for the company and the associated collaborators to manufacture and assemble five cars. A safety recall of the earlier produced cars by the company was made in May 2009 for all the 345 vehicles. Technicians were thus sent to the customer’s homes for making technical changes for the achievement of the desired safety measures. An information was thus passed to the customers that this adjustment in the tightening of the rare inner bolts was necessary to avoid loss of control and possible incidences of accidents. The problem was a resultant effect of the lotus company in its process of the car assembly. The lotus company, on the other hand, equally engaged in the recall procedure of the customer’s cars to make the necessary adjustments to maintain an uniform image of the production efficiency(Richardson, 2012). The tesla company announced an agreement it had made with the potential suppliers that resultantly would boost the production of the electronic cars by forty percent. Due to the impending increment in production, there was a necessity in the expansion of the market base of the car. The company thus expanded the market for the electric cars to the Asian and the Australian market in 2011. In the conclusion of the production of the tesla roadster models, 2600 were made, and the cars were sold in the world global market. However, for the closure of the production timeline, the tesla company produces some of the special final versions of the cars. The special final editions were made to be fifteen, and they were to be sold in the three sales regions of North America, Europe and in Asia. In spite of having no special energy consumption or standards modification, the specialty came as a result of color difference of the car to their predecessors as well as a few alteration of the inbuilt features for the purposes of luxury(Thrun, 2010). Market viability of the car project The 2010 model of the tesla roadster had the base price of US$109000. The model had begun shipping to the customers in July 2009, and had a three-year warranty. The company at the same time offered a powertrain warranty and the battery replacement warranty. The financing of the production of the tesla roadster in the United States market was in July 2009 announced to be possible through the bank of America. The financing through the bank was thus made available of up to 75 percent of the cost of production. The customer at the same time could apply for the approval of a five-year payment duration that could be paid in monthly instalments of $1,700. In the American marker, the company sells directly to the customers and in other instances; it sells online in 13 showrooms(The Boston Consulting Group, 2010). Other than the American market, the company has also created a great impact on the European and the Asian markets. The shipment of the cars to the European market has been made a reality since the middle of 2009. In the year 2012, the company had managed to sell more than 550 of the tesla roadster to the European market. The company has thus managed to open showrooms in the major metropolises of the Europe including London, Munich, Copenhagen, Zurich and in Monaco. In the European market, a refundable reservation price of the tesla roadster was €3,000. In the Japanese showrooms, the vehicles are sold at an average of ¥10 million and ¥20 million. However, the buyers in japan are liable for additional annual taxes as the cars exceed the government of Japan dimension regulation(Richardson, 2012). Service cost for the vehicle in comparison to others in the market. The tesla roadster unlike other cars in the market that utilizes combustion engines does not require frequent services. The combustion engine cars require services that entail periodical exchange in oil and lubricant in order to maintain the efficiency of the engine. The maintenance of these systems for the smooth operation of the combustion engine vehicles require the customers to make own initiative of liaising with the desired mechanics and dealers of the service. This move makes the cost of maintaining the combustion engine vehicles none uniform thereby the customer would incur additional cost in relation to the service provider(Zimmerley et al., 2008). In order to minimize the maintenance costs for its clients, tesla motors has resorted to recommending the clients to bring their cars for maintenance at the tesla center. The maintenance services at the center are thus offered once every year or upon the vehicle covering a distance of 20,000 km. for easier access of the service to the customers, the company at the same time has created mobile service units. The mobile unit is composed with the qualified company technocrats as per the standards of the company who are dispatched to the market offering services to the customers. For the maintenance of the quality service offered by the company and the team of the technical team, the company charges the customer’s fee in relation to the distance service unit covers for the provision of the service to the customers. The team of technicians thus drives the company vehicles that are equipped with the maintenance tools and testing machines as well as the software to the customers experiencing a problem with their cars. This attempt thereby helps in reduction of the towing fee that the client would have spent in shipping the car back to the company’s manufacturing headquarters. The service provision at the same time continues to the tesla showrooms. The company first opened its maintenance showroom in California and Los Angeles. The showroom service centers have thus been opened virtually in all the showrooms of the trading centers for service provision and answering to the consumers’ demands and questions(Fraichard & Ahuactzin, 2001). Work breakdown of the project. The performance features of the tesla roadster Like other models of the tesla electric vehicles, the tesla roadster is powered by a three-phase induction electric motor. The motor has the capability of emitting a maximum output of 185-kilo warts of power. The power margin can maintain constant for a larger duration of time irrespective of speed. The use of electric powered system thus enables the vehicle to maintain the Constance of the performance, as the power does not affect the engine and the motors as do the combustion fuel to the engines. The powered system of the vehicle functions efficiently since it is air-cooled. The cooling of the system by the air thus negates the need for liquid cooling system(Berdichevsky et al., 2007). BorgWarner manufactures the energy transmission for the propulsion of the vehicle as from 2008. The company manufactures a single speed gearbox with higher efficiency than the previous boxes that were installed to the vehicles prior to 2008. Nevertheless, a single gear transmission was replaced by a double gear transmission, and the speed of the vehicle was like wisely slightly reduced. The installation of a double gear and reduction of the speed of the car was a way of increasing the safety of the vehicles to the customers. A higher performance version of the car was thus released by the company from as early as 2009, with the acceleration limit of between 0 and 97 km/h within a time limit of 3.7 seconds(Halliday, 2009b). The energy storage system of the car is in the form of its battery. The tesla roadster car has a battery that contains 6831 lithium cells that are arranged in unit sheets of eleven sheets per unit. The cells are connected in series providing a higher amount of energy delivery. The connection in series is connected in other units referred to by the company as bricks, and the bricks are thus connected in parallel to each other. A single battery unit of the tesla roadster contains sixty-nine bricks. The arrangement of the bricks in parallel are purposed to ensure the maintenance of the same amount of energy output for a longer duration of time. The charging duration of a single battery unit is approximately three and a half hours. Charging with a high charging unit supplies 240 volts of electricity, hence recharging of the battery unit takes a shorter duration of time since the charging begins from the point when the battery is not empty. Recharging of the battery under the company specification can take two forms. There could be the use of a wall mounted the 240-voltage home connector, the use of a home connector is meant to save the duration of time a customer has to wait while the car is being recharged. The customer thus recharges the vehicle at his/her convenience during the free hours when the customer is at home(Zimmerley et al., 2008). The second version of the charging system is a portable 240 voltage. The portable charging system is thus efficient in case the customer opts for a longer duration journey that may necessitate being away from either the company dealership or the home charging system. The portable charging system thus comes with a cable that is capable of plugging into any conventional charging port thus the customer can conveniently recharge throughout the process of the journey. Using the charging system, the charging duration varies in dependence to the energy state of the charger, the availability of the current and the existence of a circuit breaker(Katz, 2006). The tesla roadster energy efficiency The tesla motor company has a specification that the battery system is capable of efficiently wheeling 110 warts per kilometer. In comparison to the petroleum efficiency, the system can only be compared using the equivalent calculation methods. The energy efficiency of the car is more costly as per the calculation and in an attempt to reduce this cost, the company offers ways such as giving warranties for the battery and the replacement of the car battery after a duration of seven years. Replacement of the battery for the customer by the company is a way of reducing the cost of the energy requirement that is increased by worn out batteries hence he customer in the long run would be spent relatively equal amount of money as the gasoline consuming counterparts(The Boston Consulting Group, 2010). In a further attempt to reduce the energy cost for the clients, the company has resorted to the construction of a supercharging system. The system is a mega project that is a network of 480 volts that is a fast charging station. The stations are built at designated points in the American highways and other market economies. As of April 2014, there was a completed construction of 100 stations in the United States, 23 stations in Europe and three stations in Asia. The high charging system in America opened in 2012 with free access. An appropriate direct current charging network system thus is purposed to supply the American, European, Asian and the Australian market for the tesla roadster cars(Lieven, Mühlmeier, Henkel, & Waller, 2011). Analysis of the project Advantages of the tesla roadster electric cars The initial brainchild behind the publicity of the electric vehicle system is the phobia of the energy crisis in the 1970’s an electric vehicle thus helps in reducing the energy form dependence on gasoline fuel. Electric energy is a domestic energy source that could be manufactured or created by all countries of the world beginning with solar, hydro to nuclear energy. The availability of electric source of energy is one of the major advantages the electric vehicles have over the gasoline engine energy. The process of extraction of fossil fuel is much costly as compared to the process of harnessing the electric energy(Verheijen & Jabben, 2010). In addition to the extraction of the fossil fuel, not all countries of the world are endowed with the natural resource. Using of electric vehicles in the long run would be economically viable as it utilizes a renewable source of energy. The country’s economy at large great benefits from reduced cost of importation or extraction of fuel and the maintenance cost of the vehicles are like wisely reduced. Electric vehicles, on the other hand, are environmental friendly as compared to the gasoline combustion types. The major concern of international conferences is the effect of global warming. Global warming is caused by the increased amount of pollutants emitted in the atmosphere. The gasoline combustion engines add plenty of pollutant gasses into the environment adding to the problem of global warming. The warming thus affects other sectors of the economy including agricultural activities and commercial activities. On a wider view, the addition of combusted fumes into the atmosphere results to the occurrence of natural calamities like the tsunamis that cause a wide range of both human and economic fatality. On the other hand, the electric cars are consumers of clean energy thus providing no emission of waste products. The use of electric vehicles would thus aid in the conservation of the environment and efficient utilization of the natural resources. The electronic cars have a higher performance benefit than their gasoline combustion counterparts. The vehicles due to lack of combustion are capable of movement without sound thus are important in the prevention of noise pollution. The ability of the vehicles to accelerate at a higher rate within a shorter duration of time equally adds to the advantage of their performance benefit as it could be used in emergencies in cases of accidents and emergency rescue is needed. In addition to the benefits of the performance of the vehicle, the tesla roadster requires a lower maintenance incidence as compared to the gasoline-consuming counterparts. The gasoline vehicles have a highly sophisticated engine that require constant lubrication and cooling that is opposed to the battery system of the tesla roadster that only needs recharging and is air-cooled(Verheijen & Jabben, 2010). The electric vehicles are in a way more energy efficient that the gasoline consuming vehicles. The tesla roadster can convert up to 65% of the electric energy from the grid to the wheels of the vehicle. In comparison to the gasoline vehicle, a typically efficient gasoline vehicle is only capable of converting up to 20% of the energy stored in the gasoline power to the wheels of the vehicle. In this instance, it shows that the tesla roadster is more economical in terms of energy utilization and he output requirement than the gasoline vehicles. Challenges of the tesla roadster car From constant testing and improvements of the quality of the tesla roadster, it has been affirmed that the tesla roadster can only go for approximately 100-200 miles before recharging. On the other hand, the gasoline vehicles can operate for more than 300 miles before refueling. The constant recharging of the tesla roadster reduces the life of the vehicle. Moreover, the need for constant recharging of the vehicle necessitate that the vehicle can only be used in certain localities with a well supply of recharging equipment. The gasoline consuming vehicles could carry additional fuels in jerricans for emergency purposes in case of longer distances that are far from fueling centers. This move is impossible with the tesla roadster cars that have only to rely on the battery power with no alternative to being relied upon(Čeřovský & Mindl, 2008). Refueling time for gasoline combustion car can take a maximum of ten minutes depending on the amount of fuel needed by the consumer. However, in the case of electric vehicles, it takes a longer time for recharging with the least recharging time for a tesla roadster being four hours and the time could extend up to eight hours depending on the level of current. The length of recharging time for the tesla roadster poses a lot of inconveniences in terms of time hence could lead to an abrupt termination of plans and schedules. The cost of installation of the battery system of electric cars is much expensive, and the batteries need replacement after specific duration of time to maintain their efficiency. This on one hand leads to an increase in the cost of possession of the car that is not the case with the gasoline cars that have all their parts only maintained and may not require any regular replacement. Additionally, the battery is heavy and takes up a large space of the vehicle. Recommendation for the production of the tesla roadster The production of the electronic vehicles is a viable project that needs a wide support both from the governments and the public. The support the production needs is due to the efficiency and environmental viability of the vehicles. The project at the same time would help in minimizing the pollution effects that have been greatly attributed to some of the health problems. However, in the production of the vehicles, more research has to be done pertaining the improvement in the car battery technology so as to have more energy conserving battery unit as well as a lighter one. The tesla company should consider construction of more recharging points throughout their market regions to benefit the clients. Taking a case like Asia where there were only three charging points as per 2012, the few number of the highway high-speed charging points could be a discouragement to the potential buyers due to the possibility of getting stranded on the highway as a result of power deficit. Electric vehicle project is a viable project that should be designed to fit the objective of safeguarding the environment from the gasoline pollutants. However, for this objective to be achieved, cheaper models of the electric vehicles have to be manufactured in order to benefit not only the rich but also the potential buyers of the gasoline cars. In the instance that all members of the economy have the capability of purchasing an electric vehicle, the mission of reducing environmental pollution would be highly reduced. Lessons learnt. The production process of efficient business and engineering product demands a partnership of several sectors of production to fulfill the desired mission. For the production of the tesla roadster, there was a need for partnership of more than three different companies enabling the work process to be faster and efficient. The collaboration process brings about division of labor and specialization. Thus, a company that is tasked with the production of a specific section of the machine would perform it to the required standards and in a faster rate. The idea of division of labor thus saw an increment in the total weekly production number of the tesla roadster in the year 2009(Brain, 2009). Conclusion The engineering project of the tesla roadster is one of its kind that has shed light in the manner in which motor vehicle industry could be operated. The project has also acted as a means through which other companies could emulate the alternative source of energy for running machines that would be both efficient and environmental friendly. References Berdichevsky, G., Kelty, K., Straubel, J., & Toomre, E. (2007). The Tesla Roadster Battery System. Tesla Motors Inc, 1–5. Brain, M. (2009). How Electric Cars Work. Čeřovský, Z., & Mindl, P. (2008). Hybrid electric cars, combustion engine driven cars and their impact on environment. In SPEEDAM 2008 - International Symposium on Power Electronics, Electrical Drives, Automation and Motion (pp. 739–743). doi:10.1109/SPEEDHAM.2008.4581321 Fletcher, S. (2011). Bottled Lightning: Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy. Amazon (p. 272). Fraichard, T., & Ahuactzin, J. M. (2001). Smooth path planning for cars. In Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Vol. 4, pp. 3722–3727). doi:10.1109/ROBOT.2001.933197 Halliday, J. (2009a). Electric cars eschew ads for events, websites. Advertising Age, 80, 8. Halliday, J. (2009b). TESLA MOTORS. Advertising Age, 80, 17. Katz, J. (2006). AERODYNAMICS OF RACE CARS. 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