AC Propulsion is a San Dimas, California, USA company founded in 1992 by Alan Cocconi, Wally Rippel, and Paul Carosa, that specializes in alternating current-based drivetrain systems for electric vehicles. It offers AC-induction traction motors. The company produces electric vehicle drive systems featuring high performance, high efficiency induction motors and integrated high power battery charging. Previously, they built an electric sports car, the tzero and the eBox, an electric conversion based on the Scion XB. They also develop prototype electric vehicles for OEM customers.
The General Motors EV1 is an electric car produced and leased by General Motors from 1996 to 1999. It was the first mass-produced and purpose-designed electric vehicle of the modern era from a major automaker and the first GM car designed to be an electric vehicle from the outset.
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.
Who Killed the Electric Car? is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Chris Paine that explores the creation, limited commercialization and subsequent destruction of the battery electric vehicle in the United States, specifically the General Motors EV1 of the mid-1990s. The film explores the roles of automobile manufacturers, the oil industry, the federal government of the United States, the California government, batteries, hydrogen vehicles and consumers in limiting the development and adoption of this technology.
Tesla, Inc. is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas, which designs and manufactures electric vehicles, stationary battery energy storage devices from home to grid-scale, solar panels and solar shingles, and related products and services. Its subsidiary Tesla Energy develops and is a major installer of photovoltaic systems in the United States and is one of the largest global suppliers of battery energy storage systems with 6.5 gigawatt-hours (GWh) installed in 2022.
The Tesla Roadster is a battery electric vehicle sports car, based on the Lotus Elise chassis, 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.
Chris Paine is an American filmmaker and environmental activist. His notable works as director include the documentaries Who Killed the Electric Car?Revenge of the Electric Car and Do You Trust This Computer? Paine received a nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay for Who Killed the Electric Car?
The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid car manufactured by General Motors, also marketed in rebadged variants as the Holden Volt in Australia and New Zealand and the Buick Velite 5 in China, and with a different fascia as the Vauxhall Ampera in the United Kingdom and as the Opel Ampera in the remainder of Europe. Volt production ended in February 2019.
The Cadillac ELR was a two-door, four-passenger luxury plug-in hybrid compact coupé manufactured and marketed by Cadillac for model years (MY) 2014 and 2016 – with a hiatus for MY 2015. Using a retuned version of the Chevrolet Volt's Voltec EREV drivetrain, the ELR's lithium-ion battery pack delivered an all-electric range of 37–39 miles (60–63 km) and a top speed of 106 mph (171 km/h).
Range anxiety is the driver's fear that a vehicle has insufficient energy storage to cover the road distance needed to reach its intended destination, and would thus strand the vehicle's occupants mid-way. The term, which is now primarily used in reference to the practical driving range of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), is considered to be one of the major psychological barriers to large-scale public adoption of electric cars.
The Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance, originally known as the Renault–Nissan Alliance, is a French-Japanese strategic alliance between the automobile manufacturers Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, which together sell more than 1 in 9 vehicles worldwide. Renault and Nissan are strategic partners since 1999 and have nearly 450,000 employees and control eight major brands: Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Infiniti, Renault Korea, Dacia, Alpine, and Venucia. The car group sold 10.6 million vehicles worldwide in 2017, making it the leading light vehicle manufacturing group in the world. The Alliance adopted its current name in September 2017, one year after Nissan acquired a controlling interest in Mitsubishi and subsequently made Mitsubishi an equal partner in the Alliance.
Numerous plug-in electric vehicle (EV) fire incidents have taken place since the introduction of mass-production plug-in electric vehicles. As a result of these incidents, the United States Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted a study in 2017 to establish whether lithium-ion batteries in plug-electric vehicles pose an exceptional fire hazard. The research looked at whether the high-voltage batteries can cause fires when they are being charged, and when the vehicles are involved in an accident.
Regarding the risk of electrochemical failure, [this] report concludes that the propensity and severity of fires and explosions from the accidental ignition of flammable electrolytic solvents used in Li-ion battery systems are anticipated to be somewhat comparable to or perhaps slightly less than those for gasoline or diesel vehicular fuels. The overall consequences for Li-ion batteries are expected to be less because of the much smaller amounts of flammable solvent released and burning in a catastrophic failure situation.
"Wet Nellie" is the behind-the-scenes name given to a custom-built submarine, created for the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me in the shape of a Lotus Esprit S1 sports car. The Esprit was chosen to give James Bond a glamorous car to drive. "Wet Nellie" is named in reference to Little Nellie, an autogyro featured in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, which was itself named after actress and comedian Nellie Wallace.
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.
The Tesla Model 3 is a battery electric compact executive car with a fastback body style built by Tesla, Inc. since 2017. The Model 3 was marketed as being more affordable to more people than previous models by Tesla. The Model 3 was the world's top selling plug-in electric car for three years, from 2018 to 2020, before being knocked from the top spot by the Tesla Model Y, a crossover SUV based on the Model 3 chassis. In June 2021, the Model 3 became the first electric car to pass global sales of 1 million. A refresh of the Tesla Model 3 was introduced in 2023, offering a revised exterior and interior.
The Tesla Semi is a battery electric Class 8 semi-truck built by Tesla, Inc. since 2022. The truck is powered by three motors, and is claimed by Tesla to have approximately three times the power of a typical diesel semi truck, a range of 500 miles (800 km), and operate at an energy use of less than 2 kWh/mi (1.2 kW⋅h/km).
This is the corporate history of Tesla, Inc., an electric vehicle manufacturer and clean energy company founded in San Carlos, California in 2003 by American entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. The company is named after Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla. Tesla is the world's leading electric vehicle manufacturer, and, as of the end of 2021, Tesla's cumulative global vehicle sales totaled 2.3 million units.
Do You Trust This Computer? is a 2018 American documentary film directed by Chris Paine that outlines the benefits and especially the dangers of artificial intelligence. It features interviews with a range of prominent individuals relevant to AI, such as Ray Kurzweil, Elon Musk, Michal Kosinski, D. Scott Phoenix, Hiroshi Ishiguro, and Jonathan Nolan. The film was directed by Chris Paine, known for Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006) and the subsequent followup, Revenge of the Electric Car (2011).
The Tesla Cybertruck is a battery electric full-size pickup truck built by Tesla, Inc. since 2023. The vehicle was introduced as a concept vehicle in November 2019. It is notable for its distinctive triangular body design with flat sheet metal panels made of stainless steel, which has attracted controversy.
Elon Musk is an American businessman and investor who has made numerous cameo appearances in films and television shows as himself. These appearances include Iron Man 2, The Simpsons, South Park, The Big Bang Theory, and Rick and Morty. He has also made appearances in many documentary films.
