Tesla Roadster Runs For 241 Miles In E-Rally

N!NJA writes with the mention of a recent alternative energies rally where the Tesla Roadster managed to cover 241 miles on a single charge, with another 38 miles of juice still left in the battery. "That would give the Roadster a theoretical maximum touring range of nearly 280 miles — 36 miles more than Tesla itself reckons the car will cover on a charge. If the numbers stand up to official scrutiny, Tesla will hold the world record for the longest distance traveled by a production electric car on a single charge. Of course, it should be pointed out that the Tesla was driven by a company staffer doubtless practiced in eking out every last mile from a charge, and that the speeds averaged on the run were hardly blistering — 90kph (56mph) on the motorways, 60kph (37mph) on trunk roads and 30kph (19) in the mountain roads. Tesla reckon the average speed for the entire journey was 45kph (28mph)."

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Re:Environment?

[Rei]

They're essentially not, essentially, yes, no. The phosphates and spinels most other auto makers are using, even moreso.

I'm not sure what you think is in li-ion batteries that you're picturing is so toxic. These aren't lead-acid or nickel-cadmium here. Want to know what goes into a lithium phosphate battery? Lithium salts (like you find in mineral water -- in fact, they're actually produced from salt flats where mineral waters evaporated), iron powder, phosphoric acid, sugar (for a carbon binding), porous polyethylene (separator), graphite or amorphous carbon (anode), any one of a variety corrosive but generally nontoxic electrolytes, casing, wiring, and so forth. You'll find worse stuff in a lot of bulk steels than you will in LFP cells.

Re:Very promising!

[Rei]

I think I'll stick with/change to Hydrogen

Hahahahaa.... oh, that's rich.

FYI: large li-ion battery packs like the Roadster's cost in the low *five* figures. Fuel cell** stacks sufficient to run a car cost in the low *six* figures. And the Roadster's pack is rated for 7 years, while fuel cell manufacturers are still going for that 5-year goal. And that's just Tesla's pack, which is based on babied laptop cells (chilled, individually isolated, lower DoD, etc). The more stable li-ion variants can last*** far longer. GM is looking at a 10 year warranty on the Volt's pack, for example. LG Chem thinks their packs can last up to 40 years. AltairNano titanate cell testing is up into the *tens of thousands* of full cycles. And so on down the line.

** -- By fuel cell, I mean PEMFC, obviously, since that's what's used in H2 cars.
*** -- In general, a pack is considered "bad" when it goes down to below 80% of its rated capacity.

Re:28mph over 280 miles is not good...

[Rei]

I assume you know that Top Gear *admitted* to faking the ep -- not that this is something new for them. They're an entertainment show. They never ran out of electricity and were never without a working car. The only thing that actually did go wrong was with the brakes -- but it was merely a blown fuse from the abusive track duty they put it through, and the replacement was a nothing task. Their charge time statements were horribly misleading, too.

Clarkson stated that even if the Roadster had performed flawlessly, he still would have been hard on it because he believes that hydrogen is the future.