The tZero is a hand-built electric sports car designed and built in very limited numbers by the U.S. pioneering company AC Propulsion in the mid 1990's. It was the inspiration and direct predecessor of the Tesla line of electric cars. The only part of the tZero that was not proprietary was the body that was based on the Piontek Sportech sports car, yet many parts of the body and interior were extensively modified. It consists of a Kevlar & Carbon Fiber reinforced body built over a custom hand-built reinforced stainless steel fabricated to package batteries space frame with double wishbone independent suspension and rack and pinion steering. AC Propulsion utilized their AC-150 drivetrain, a single-speed electric system with an overall gear ratio of 9:1.
Crude electric carriages were first invented in the late 1820s and 1830s. Practical, commercially available electric vehicles appeared during the 1890s. An electric vehicle held the vehicular land speed record until around 1900. In the early 20th century, the high cost, low top speed, and short-range of battery electric vehicles, compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, led to a worldwide decline in their use as private motor vehicles. Electric vehicles have continued to be used for loading and freight equipment and for public transport – especially rail vehicles.
Franz von Holzhausen is an American vehicle designer. Since 2008, he has been in charge of design at Tesla, Inc. He led design for the Tesla Model S, Model X, Model 3, Model Y, Semi, Cybertruck, and Tesla Roadster. Prior to Tesla, he worked in design at Mazda, General Motors, and Volkswagen.
Tesla, Inc. is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy storage devices from home to grid-scale, solar panels and solar shingles, and related products and services.
The Tesla Roadster is a battery electric sports car, that is based on the Lotus Elise chassis, and was produced by Tesla Motors from 2008 to 2012. The Roadster was the first highway legal, serial production, all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells, and the first production all-electric car to travel more than 244 miles (393 km) per charge. It is also the first production car to be launched into deep space, carried by a Falcon Heavy rocket in a test flight on February 6, 2018.
Martin Eberhard is an American engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla, Inc. with Marc Tarpenning in 2003, where Eberhard was its original CEO serving until late 2007. In 2015, he was inducted into the University of Illinois Engineering Hall of Fame.
An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a plug-in electric vehicle, typically a battery electric vehicle (BEV), which only uses energy stored in on-board battery packs, but broadly may also include plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), range-extended electric vehicle (REEV) and fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV), which can convert electric power from other fuels via a generator or a fuel cell.
A plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) is any road vehicle that can utilize an external source of electricity to store electrical energy within its onboard rechargeable battery packs, to power an electric motor and help propel the wheels. PEV is a subset of electric vehicles, and includes all-electric/battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Sales of the first series production plug-in electric vehicles began in December 2008 with the introduction of the plug-in hybrid BYD F3DM, and then with the all-electric Mitsubishi i-MiEV in July 2009, but global retail sales only gained traction after the introduction of the mass production all-electric Nissan Leaf and the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt in December 2011.
The Detroit Electric SP.01 is a proposed battery electric vehicle designed by the Detroit Electric company and originally unveiled to the media in Detroit and then publicly at the Shanghai Motor Show in 2013. It is powered by an air-cooled lithium polymer battery.
The stock of plug-in electric passenger cars in Canada in use totaled 141,060 units at the end of 2019, consisting of 78,680 all-electric cars and 62,380 plug-in hybrids. Sales totaled 50,960 units in 2019.
Drive eO is an engineering company which operates from Latvia and specializes in development of electric and hybrid electric prototype vehicles for demanding applications. It was founded in 2011 to create the first ever hybrid electric rally car OSCar eO for the 2012 Dakar Rally. Driven by Māris Saukāns and Andris Dambis, it successfully completed the rally.
The Tesla Semi is a battery electric semi-trailer truck built by Tesla, Inc. since 2022. The truck is powered by three motors, and according to Tesla has approximately three times the power of a typical diesel semi truck, a range of 500 miles (800 km), and can operate at an energy use of less than two kilowatt-hours per mile (1.2 kW⋅h/km).
Lucid Group, Inc. is an American automotive and technology company that manufactures electric vehicles and supplies advanced electric vehicle powertrain systems. The company is headquartered in Newark, California. In September 2021, the company began producing the Lucid Air sedan at its factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. The company expects to begin production of its second model, the Lucid Gravity SUV, in late 2024. Lucid also supplies and develops powertrain technology to other automakers, including Aston Martin.
Circuit Européen Pau-Arnos is a club track in Arnos about 20 km (12 mi) to the west of the city Pau in southwestern France which is famous for its street circuit Circuit de Pau-Ville where the Pau Grand Prix is held.
The Tesla Roadster is an upcoming battery electric four-seater sports car to be built by Tesla, Inc. The company said it will be capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, which would be quicker than any street legal production car to date at its announcement in November 2017. The Roadster is the successor to Tesla's first production car, the 2008 Roadster.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E is a battery electric compact crossover SUV produced by Ford. Introduced on November 17, 2019, it went on sale in December 2020 as a 2021 model. The Mach-E is part of the Mustang series, with its name inspired by the Mach 1 variant of the first-generation Mustang. The car won the 2021 North American SUV of the Year Award.
A Cannonball Run is an unsanctioned speed record for driving across the United States, typically accepted to run from New York City's Red Ball Garage to the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach near Los Angeles, covering a distance of about 2,906 miles (4,677 km). As of October 2021, the overall record is 25 hours 39 minutes, with an average speed of 112 miles per hour (180 km/h), driven by Arne Toman and Doug Tabbutt.
EcoGP, officially the Eco Grand Prix, is a European 24-hour car race for electric cars.
The adoption of electric vehicles in Singapore is supported by the Singapore government via the Singapore Green Plan 2030 to have new car models required to run on cleaner energy sources and installation of up to 60,000 electric vehicle charging stations. Financial incentives are given to the public for installation of charging points and purchase of electric cars.
