Electric cars in China: Tesla opens pre-orders for mainland customers TSLA

  

  China will be the huge market for Tesla Model S. Chinese middle class is the size of European population now and will provide the huge base for the mass market of Electric Cars in the future. Couple it with horrendous pollution problems in the main Chinese cities and you have the market waiting for solutions. We believe that Tesla will be able to sell thousands of Tesla Model S to fashionable "young and rich" crowd in China.

Powered by Lithium: Elon Musk to make electric cars affordable? TSLA

"Tesla Model S is the very serious technological achievement and Elon Musk's motivation is pretty simple: "My kids are driving this car every day." Now we need his Gen 3 - new Electric Car for the mass market to make electric revolution happen."

Global demand for lithium expected to rise significantly LIT, ILC.v, TNR.v, RM.v

"Euro Pacific Canada has produced the very interesting report Lithium Industry - A Strategic Energy Metal, we can expect now the push of Lithium Investment story into the market place on the back of Tesla Model S success in the market place. International Lithium is mentioned as well with its strategic partner from China Ganfeng Lithium in the report."

South China Morning Post News:

Electric cars in China: Tesla opens pre-orders for mainland customers

US electric car manufacturer plans to expand into Chinese market

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The Tesla Model S electric car is expected to be an attractive option for mainland buyers. Photo: David Dewhurst

Tesla Motors will soon be bringing its unique brand of electric cars to China. 

“We are now starting formal pre-order bookings for Tesla Model S,” wrote Kingston Chang, general manger of Tesla China, in a post this week on his official Sina Weibo microblog. “The official Tesla Motors Weibo company page has gone online, [everyone] please pay attention to it.”

Chang, who could not be reached by phone for comment, also revealed that Tesla’s China branch would not be seeking assistance from any local dealers in the mainland market. All of the company’s electric cars, including its famous zero emission Model S sedan, would be sold to buyers directly, in keeping with the company’s tradition in other markets.

Tesla listed 250,000 yuan (HK$317,000) as the pre-order price for booking a Model S, but did not reveal further information on final prices, Chinese business site Caijing reported.

Atsuko Doi, head of communications for Tesla Motors Asia Pacific, told theSouth China Morning Post the company planned to open a store in Beijing in 2013, but details of the store and Tesla’s other plans for the China market were still confidential.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said the Chinese market was a “wild card” for the electric car maker, pointing to the country’s ever-growing wealthy middle class and the government’s recent push for clean energy, Caijingreported.

Despite this, Musk also said Tesla vehicles were expected to find a healthy audience in the mainland among luxury car enthusiasts, and cheaper vehicle models would likely be developed for Chinese buyers within three to four years.

Tesla has faced difficulties in the mainland market, especially with trademark problems. The company has had trouble using its name in China, since the formal “Tesla Motors” trademark was originally registered in 2006 by a Guangdong man named Zhan Baosheng. Zhan claims to be researching electric car production, and would only offer to sell the rights to the “Tesla Motors” name for HK$248 million.

Tesla is also examining legal ways to deal with trademark issues - as Zhan has not used the trademark since 2009, Want China News reported. Tesla’s Chinese website and Weibo page currently still display its English name and logo.

Entry into the mainland marks the next stage of Tesla’s plan to expand into China. In July, the company received over 300 orders for its Model S vehicle in Hong Kong - a figure that surpassed the current number of electric cars in the city."

Powered By Lithium: The Tesla Model S Just Got The Best Safety Rating Of Any Car In History

  

  Business Insider reports on another milestone for Electric Cars - Elon Musk is ahead of the game in the safety standards as well.

Tesla Model S Quality Testing: 5 Hours Of Indoor Inspection

  "Tesla Model S is made to meet the very rigorous standards set up by Elon Musk, his aim is to build not only the best Electric Car on the market, but the Best Car. Tesla Model S has received the highest rating in crash tests and its lithium battery technology is tested now by the million miles driven in the real road conditions. 

  Supply chain for Electric Cars will get more attention from investors with the ongoing success of Tesla electric cars and Lithium will gain its respect again as the strategic commodity for the electric revolution."

Powered By Lithium: Renault Nissan Sells Its 100,000th Electric Car LIT, RM.v, ILC.v, TNR.v

  "Electric Cars are not toys any more and they are here to stay. Tesla is beating up Mercedes, BMW and Audi in the luxury sector sales in U.S. this year and Nissan puts more and more electric cars on the roads.

  After initial surge in 2009 of everything related to Lithium the market has cooled off and now there is another interesting opportunity to step up and pick up the best players in the supply chain of strategic commodities for electric revolution.

  Chinese and Japanese companies are in the front row of this new trend and accumulating the stakes in lithium developers with valuable projects in the pipeline."

Business Insider:

The Tesla Model S Just Got The Best Safety Rating Of Any Car In History

Here's another extraordinary accomplishment by Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk.

The electric car company announced yesterday evening that its famous 'Model S' sedan has achieved the best safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of any car that's ever been tested in history.

The company says it received 5 stars in every possible category (something that's awarded to just 1% of cars) and that the Model S set a new record for lowest likelihood of passenger injury.

Here's the full press release from Tesla:

Tesla Model S Achieves Best Safety Rating of Any Car Ever Tested

Sets New NHTSA Vehicle Safety Score Record

Monday, August 19, 2013

Palo Alto, CA — Independent testing by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has awarded the Tesla Model S a 5-star safety rating, not just overall, but in every subcategory without exception. Approximately one percent of all cars tested by the federal government achieve 5 stars across the board. NHTSA does not publish a star rating above 5, however safety levels better than 5 stars are captured in the overall Vehicle Safety Score (VSS) provided to manufacturers, where the Model S achieved a new combined record of 5.4 stars.

Of all vehicles tested, including every major make and model approved for sale in the United States, the Model S set a new record for the lowest likelihood of injury to occupants. While the Model S is a sedan, it also exceeded the safety score of all SUVs and minivans. This score takes into account the probability of injury from front, side, rear and rollover accidents.

The Model S has the advantage in the front of not having a large gasoline engine block, thus creating a much longer crumple zone to absorb a high speed impact. This is fundamentally a force over distance problem – the longer the crumple zone, the more time there is to slow down occupants at g loads that do not cause injuries. Just like jumping into a pool of water from a tall height, it is better to have the pool be deep and not contain rocks. The Model S motor is only about a foot in diameter and is mounted close to the rear axle, and the front section that would normally contain a gasoline engine is used for a second trunk.

For the side pole intrusion test, considered one of the most difficult to pass, the Model S was the only car in the "good" category among the other top one percent of vehicles tested. Compared to the Volvo S60, which is also 5-star rated in all categories, the Model S preserved 63.5 percent of driver residual space vs. 7.8 percent for the Volvo. Tesla achieved this outcome by nesting multiple deep aluminum extrusions in the side rail of the car that absorb the impact energy (a similar approach was used by the Apollo Lunar Lander) and transfer load to the rest of the vehicle. This causes the pole to be either sheared off or to stop the car before the pole hits an occupant.

The rear crash testing was particularly important, given the optional third row children's seat. For this, Tesla factory installs a double bumper if the third row seat is ordered. This was needed in order to protect against a highway speed impact in the rear with no permanently disabling injury to the third row occupants. The third row is already the safest location in the car for frontal or side injuries.

The Model S was also substantially better in rollover risk, with the other top vehicles being approximately 50 percent worse. During testing at an independent facility, the Model S refused to turn over via the normal methods and special means were needed to induce the car to roll. The reason for such a good outcome is that the battery pack is mounted below the floor pan, providing a very low center of gravity, which simultaneously ensures exceptional handling and safety.

Of note, during validation of Model S roof crush protection at an independent commercial facility, the testing machine failed at just above 4 g's. While the exact number is uncertain due to Model S breaking the testing machine, what this means is that at least four additional fully loaded Model S vehicles could be placed on top of an owner's car without the roof caving in. This is achieved primarily through a center (B) pillar reinforcement attached via aerospace grade bolts.

The above results do not tell the full story. It is possible to game the regulatory testing score to some degree by strengthening a car at the exact locations used by the regulatory testing machines. After verifying through internal testing that the Model S would achieve a NHTSA 5-star rating, Tesla then analyzed the Model S to determine the weakest points in the car and retested at those locations until the car achieved 5 stars no matter how the test equipment was configured.

The Model S lithium-ion battery did not catch fire at any time before, during or after the NHTSA testing. It is worth mentioning that no production Tesla lithium-ion battery has ever caught fire in the Model S or Roadster, despite several high speed impacts. While this is statistically unlikely to remain the case long term, Tesla is unaware of any Model S or Roadster occupant fatalities in any car ever.

The graphic below shows the statistical Relative Risk Score (RSS) of Model S compared with all other vehicles tested against the exceptionally difficult NHTSA 2011 standards. In 2011, the standards were revised upward to make it more difficult to achieve a high safety rating.

John Voelcker: Boeing 787 Batteries Same As Those In Electric Cars? Umm, NO

  John Voelcker sets the record straight in the very noisy talks about the Lithium Batteries and Boeing troubles. Security in any airplane is the paramount concern - we are very surprised to read John's findings. LCO batteries with LiCoO2 chemistry are the most aggressive choice for the battery, when Cobalt has the risk of being easily oxidised with the huge amount of energy released. We will be very surprised if it is the case with Boeing 787 Dreamliner - automakers started to move away from this chemistry long time ago.

Battery University: Types of Lithium-ion

GreenCarReports:

Boeing 787 Batteries Same As Those In Electric Cars? Umm, NO

Gird yourself: It's possible we're about to see a new wave of attacks on electric cars that ignore battery science.

This time the culprit is the troubled Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The FAA has grounded all 787safter a string of fires in their lithium-ion battery packs; other countries have done the same.

Which has led at least one supposedly authoritative commentator to say that Boeing is having the same battery problems as those "that have shown up in electric cars."

The problem is that the two types of batteries are, in fact, quite different.

Here's the offending quote, from Paul Czysz, professor emeritus of aeronautical engineering at St. Louis University, as cited in a Boston Herald article this morning:

"Unfortunately, what Boeing did to save weight is use the same batteries that are in the electric cars, and they are running into the same problems with the 787 as the problems that have shown up in electric cars."

The author of the Boston Herald piece then went on to describe a 2011 fire in a Chevy Volt crash-test car that occurred several days after it was wrecked and rotated through 360 degrees by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In January 2012, the NHTSA closed an investigation into Volt fires, concluding that "no discernible defect trend exists" and that "modifications recently developed by General Motors reduce the potential for battery intrusion resulting from side impacts."

Here's the problem: While the battery cells in Boeing 787s and, say, Chevrolet Volts are both in the lithium-ion family, they use very different chemistries.

You can think of lithium-ion cells rather like motor vehicles: They all do some variation of the same thing, but there are many different types, sizes, shapes, and different technologies to make that happen. Consider the difference between gasoline and diesel engines, for example.

The cells in the 787, from Japanese company GS Yuasa, use a cobalt oxide (CoO2) chemistry, just as mobile-phone and laptop batteries do.

That chemistry has the highest energy content, but it is also the most susceptible to overheating that can produce "thermal events" (which is to say, fires).

2013 Chevrolet Volt, Catskill Mountains, Oct 2012

Only one electric car has been built in volume using CoO2 cells, and that's the Tesla Roadster. Only 2,500 of those cars will ever exist.

The Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car, on the other hand, uses LG Chem prismatic cells withmanganese spinel (LiMn2O4) cathodes.

While chemistries based on manganese, nickel, and other metals carry less energy per volume, they are widely viewed as less susceptible to overheating and fires.

So if you see coverage of the Boeing 787 battery fires that says anything at all about electric cars, do consider dropping a friendly note to the reporter involved.

It may be unreasonable to expect  every reporter in the world to know that "lithium-ion batteries" are a family of very different chemistries.

Science reporters, on the other hand--let alone engineering professors--really should know better.

You have been warned."