Category: Electric Car

Elon Musk: The Development Of Electric Cars And Spacex

Space exploration used to be a fantasy or a plot from a sci-fi movie, but with technology and great ideas, this fantasy has become a reality. He is the creator and founder of the electric car company known as Tesla. He is also the founder of the private spaceflight company known as SpaceX. In both of these, he has started some way to change Space Exploration and Science in many ways, but he is currently developing new electric cars for Tesla and has sent many rovers to other planets if they are habitable. Elon Musk is a philanthropist, multimillionaire, and entrepreneur that has changed space exploration.

SpaceX is a spaceflight company privately owned by Elon Musk. The Type of research that SpaceX does is that they test out countless rockets to better the future of space travel. Another topic of research that they focus on is living and traveling to Mars. “The best-known Rocket for this is called Falcon 9. Falcon 9 is a two-level rocket design made by SpaceX themselves for reliable safe transportation of countless Satellites and also the Dragon Spacecraft into orbit”(www.spacex.com) “. Many scientists in SpaceX think that reusing rocket fuel is what will make a sudden Impact that is very needed to lower the costs of access to space and be able to live on other planets” (www.spacex.com). Electric cars have started to become very common ever since Musk began to sell his Tesla cars. Nowadays countless people are buying Teslas. At the same using electric cars is helping the environment because since there’s no need for oil there is no gas released into the atmosphere. Looking at how common these electric vehicles are gonna become is not so far away as it seems to be. “Over the next two decades, worldwide electric vehicle sales are expected to skyrocket from 2 million last year to 56 million by 2040, BNEF predicts. At the same time, sales of ‘conventionally powered’ vehicles will fall from last year’s 85 million to just 42 million globally” (Dapena). From this quote itself, it is very clear how common that electric cars such as Tesla will become very common soon in the future.

SpaceX is a private spaceflight company owned by Elon Musk himself. They have currently been working on how to make it possible to travel to Mars. “With the help of Dragon, which is a Rocket, it is to help to travel to other planets and Mars is one of them. All the scientists including Musk are working very hard to try and get to Mars”(Spacexadmin.). Currently, there are also many researchers and scientists trying to see if it is habitable and can be due to the research to have been done. To conclude it is gonna be possible to travel to Mars and Mars may be Habitable too.

Electric cars are an invention that has recently gone sky high. Through the research that has been done recently, it has shown that these cars will soon become very common soon in our society. Bloomberg News Finance has stated that “Electric cars are coming close to matching gasoline- and diesel-powered cars in the purchase price and they already cost less to operate. That means that electric cars will soon overtake internal combustion-powered cars as the more economical choice for consumers, according to the new report.”(Valdes-Dapena)This report exactly shows that electric cars will soon overtake the automobile industry with them competing with gasoline cars and diesel-powered cars. In one article it was stated that electric-powered cars are way safer to use electric cars causes less damage to the environment. The exact quote was” The potential environmental benefits of electric vehicles are huge. The transportation sector accounts for 14 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and 27 percent of emissions in the United States. Moreover, countries have found it much more difficult to reduce planet-warming gases from transportation than from power plants. In America, for example, transportation emissions again regularly exceed those from the electricity sector for the first time since the late 1970s. The switch to electric cars is good for the climate because petroleum vehicles produce more greenhouse gas emissions per unit of energy than power plants fueled by natural gas, according to the Energy Information Administration.” (nytimes.com)In this quote, the explanation is that the percentage of emission not just in the US, but internationally too that it has lowered planer gases from transportation and power plants. It has also improved climate change on all vehicles and others. This reason why electric cars are bound to be used more frequently in the future to it reducing so much gas that is spread into the air by these diesel-powered cars and cars that use gasoline too.

Elon Musk is one of the smartest engineers Today in Science with the creation of Tesla and the founder of SpaceX he is really changing my views of science from the automobile industry to Space exploration. These dreams of fantasy and sci-fi that everyone or most have dreamed about are very close to coming. Sure it may actually take a while, but as long as we have the patience to wait for it to fully happen and for it to be normal in our society. It will take at least two decades, but it shouldn’t take long to fully integrate it all into our future society.

Ford & Edison’s Role in the History of the Electric Car in America 1890-1914

At the turn of the 20th century, though often looked at through a teleological view, ¬¬¬¬¬¬the future of the automobile industry was yet to be decided. About a decade prior, the electric automobile had its first development in America by William Morrison and was successfully commercialized in 1895 by the Riker Electric Vehicle Company. While steam and gasoline-powered cars were also being engineered, the electric car was ahead in public consumption by the 1900s. This paper will look at the history of the electric car in America and Ford & Edison’s role in it up till 1914. Even until 1914, the choice between electric and gasoline cars was under debate.

The history of electric cars in America starts with Thomas Davenport who invented the first American electric motor in 1834. However, it was not until 1891 that William Morrison built the first working electric car (Figure 1). The Pope Manufacturing Company in Connecticut 1897 became the first American electric car manufacturer and seller. However, electricity was not the only power to replace horse-driven vehicles.

The three types of engine power for road vehicles had distinct advantages and disadvantages. The steam engine was powerful, and efficient, and could burn a variety of fuel. It was a well-established and relatively mature technology. The steamers could operate smoothly and silently. However, the steam engines needed some time to get steam up and involved a complex array of valve gauges to make sure the water and fuel levels were proper. Another issue with the steam engine was the need for weekly cleaning of the boiler, burners, and other operating parts. The boiler water also had to be replenished with water every 25-30 miles and this was another inconvenience. A persistent rumor that the steam boilers could explode without warning prevented many potential buyers of steam cars.

In those early days, internal combustion engines (ICEs) were very noisy, smelly, and polluting. They had many mechanical problems and above all, had to be cranked by hand to start. This was an inconvenient and physically intense process, and if the crank kicked back, it could result in a sprained or broken wrist. Despite these disadvantages, gasoline cars could travel fast, and gasoline was available at many locations. Car buyers were attracted to the noise and considered it the glamour of a gasoline automobile.

Electric cars were silent, clean, and easy to operate. Electric cars did not require manual efforts to start driving and it was a major advantage. The range of electric cars was, however, limited by the charge of their batteries. As a result, electric cars were restricted to areas where they could conveniently return home to recharge or where recharging was available. Another disadvantage of early electric cars was their relatively slow speeds compared to steam and gasoline cars. The normal speed of electric cars was less than 20 miles per hour. Above all, the batteries required careful and frequent maintenance, and they were very heavy and expensive.

During the late 19th century some inventors worked diligently to develop user-friendly and affordable cars, and the two most notable among them were Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. Both Edison and Ford worked on several automobile designs and contributed immensely to the industrial and social transformation of society and the creation of the modern world. Edison and Ford eventually even teamed up to build low-priced electric cars.

Thomas Edison established The Edison Illuminating Company and opened the first commercial power plant in America in 1882. He developed the practical incandescent light bulb and the first direct current electric power generating and distribution system. He also contributed to sustainable technology and experimented with home-based wind turbines to generate electricity that would replenish batteries to provide households with an independent source of energy. He made efforts to develop methods to convert coal directly into electricity and to develop electric cars.

Edison viewed electric cars as a cleaner alternative for moving people in cities polluted with smoke. Edison had a deep respect for nature and was hesitant to damage it. He knew that fossil fuels such as coal and oil were not the best sources of power. He was concerned about the air pollution issues created by fossil fuels and recognized that those resources were limited and would become a problem in the future. Edison recognized the potential of wind power and solar power as renewable sources of energy.

Edison entered the development of electric cars in 1895 by building the first battery-powered electric car. He was self-taught as an electrochemist and in 1899, Edison made efforts to develop a storage battery suitable for vehicles. It was about four years after the introduction of the first gasoline-powered car. Edison realized that to successfully compete with the gasoline-powered car, the electric car required a rechargeable storage battery with a longer lifetime than those that were available. Edison knew that the lead-acid battery was too heavy and need a lot of maintenance. In order to compete with gasoline cars, the batteries had to be lighter and produce enough power to increase their travel range before needing a recharge. Edison worked on the development of the battery tirelessly. He subjected his storage batteries to intensive testing. He sent machines with the batteries loaded on 100-mile/day journeys until 5000 miles had been covered. His nickel-iron battery was much more durable than the commercially prevalent lead-acid battery. Edison promoted the electric wagon with his battery storage with an energy density more than double that of lead batteries. This would lead to longer tire life and a promising reduction in the cost of electric vehicles. Edison’s nickel-iron battery was commercially available in 1903. However, the nickel-iron battery was larger and more expensive than the lead-acid battery.

Henry Ford was a famous automobile developer and the inventor of modern manufacturing assembly systems. Ford joined the Edison Illuminating Company in 1891 as an engineer. Ford designed his initial “quadricycle” in 1896, and it was his first attempt to build a gasoline-powered vehicle.

He had the opportunity to present his second design for his “quadricycle” at an annual meeting of Edison. Edison replied:

Young man, that’s the thing: you have it. Keep at it. Electric cars must keep near power stations. The storage battery is too heavy. Steam cars won’t do either for they have to have a boiler and fire. Your car is self-contained—carries its own power plant—no fire, no boiler, no smoke, and no steam. You have the thing. Keep at it.

After being inspired and encouraged by the idea of a cheap ICE-powered car, Ford left his job in 1899 at Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit and formed The Henry Ford Company in 1902. In 1903, the Ford Motor Company developed its first car Model A. In 1908, Ford developed an inexpensive, high-quality, low-cost, gasoline car – Model T. The Model T was a four-cylinder car and he announced the expected delivery as early as Oct. 1st with approximately 100 cars/day production. They were priced at $850.00 which was cheaper and more reliable than electrics offered at the time.

However, the possibility of an electric-driven automobile industry did not end there. A collaboration effort between Ford and Edison was confirmed in the New York Times on January 11, 1914:

The fact is that Mr. Edison and I have been working for some years on an electric automobile that would be cheap and practicable. Cars have been built for experimental purposes, and we are satisfied now that the way is clear to success. The problem so far has been to build a storage battery of light weight which would operate for long distances without recharging. Mr. Edison has been experimenting with such a battery for some time.

Later that year, Ford announced Ford Electric as the result of their collaboration. Range anxiety and speed were pertinent issues to the success of electric vehicles. Even Ford was weary of the electric car’s range. After buying his wife a 1914 Detroit Electric Model 47 Brougham, he later installed a charging station to be certain she could get home reliably. Edison labored intensely on the further development of the nickel-iron battery, but he was unable to reach an energy density capable of powering an ICE. The proposed battery was too expensive and large to enter the successfully into the market. Ford went on to leave the project in which he had invested, according to The Ford Century, $1.5 million.

The future of the automobile industry was hardly set in stone in contrast to a teleological view. Even after Henry Ford started his own company to manufacture Model T gasoline cars, Ford worked with Thomas Edison to develop an electric vehicle. Well into the 1910s, the possibility of an electric-powered automobile industry remained realistic.

Bibliography

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