We’ve seen Tesla coils before, but nothing quite like this. Rob Flickenger has thrown caution to the wind and has built one extraordinary Tesla Gun. And it really works, complete with an incredible 20,000 volts and 2,000 amps of pure electrifying excitement.

Inspired by the Tesla Gun in The Five Fists of Science graphic novel, this real life Tesla gun is a handheld spark gap Tesla coil powered by a drill battery. It’s about the size of a small rifle and it is able to send out those crazy Tesla sparks at anything within about two feet of its business end. Naturally, it gets pretty hot and heavy pretty quickly, so all the components had to be up for the job.

There is definitely some MacGyver-ing going on with the 18V drill battery, plus the ferrite core of a flyback transformer that came by way of an old television set. The primary coil is made fom high voltage wire and high-density polyethylene insulation, while the secondary coil is made from 2.5-inch ABS pipe wrapped in 20-gauge enameled wire. You get the aluminum toroid out the business end.

Flickenger assures us that while electricity is dangerous, this is no more dangerous than a baseball bat. Tell that to the idiot who will inevitably try to recreate this toy and zap his way straight to the emergency room.

[Source]

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Say goodbye to the gas pump for good. Toyota officially debuted its RAV4 full electric vehicle at the 26th annual Electric Vehicle Symposium in Los Angeles. This is no longer a concept; it’s the production model and is available through dealers starting at $49,800, not including delivery fees.

The modern market’s first all-electric SUV, getting substantially larger and more practical than something like the Tesla Roadster. Yes, Toyota partnered up with Tesla two years ago and now that partnership is bearing some all-electric fruit for the Japanese automaker. Despite having to load in plenty of electric components, the RAV4 EV is supposed to offer the same kind of cargo capacity as its gas-powered counterpart.

As with other full electrics, the RAV4 EV won’t have the same kind of range as the gas-powered RAV4, of course. Toyota is claiming an effective range of 100 miles (161 km), which has become the norm for electric vehicles. The kicker, of course, is that the RAV4 EV is much larger than most electric vehicles. They’ve stuck with front-wheel drive and a mere 154hp to help improve the range too. Even so, you can get from 0-60mph time of seven seconds before topping out at 100mph. A full charge via a 240V outlet takes six hours; you can do the 120V thing too, but it’ll take you much longer.

Look for the Toyota RAV4 EV this summer in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Diego.

[Source]

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Tesla Motors might be hiding a big battery issue from their customers. Apparently, the company’s electric vehicles, including their Roadster and the upcoming Model S, feature a battery pack which if completely discharged might leave a huge financial burden on the unfortunate owner. But is the owner unfortunate, or simply a bit careless?

According to an article by Michael Degusta over at theunderstatement.com, if a Tesla electric car, such as the Roadster is parked unplugged, it will eventually become what the company calls a “brick”. The vehicle can no more be started or even pushed down the road. This is the result of the car’s always-on subsystems which continually feed on the battery.

And when the battery dies, the owner ends up paying Tesla approximately $40,000 for replacing the battery pack. Reportedly, there is no protection available via warranty or a car insurance policy for this particular problem. Apparently, at least five Tesla owners were unfortunate enough to end up with this problem. Degusta says Tesla is unwilling to let their customers know about the issue, although they know that it’s a big one.

But don’t you have a slight feeling that Degusta’s argument is nonsense. That’s because it is.

If you are familiar with electric cars or batteries or even smartphones, you might know the fact that the battery which is not recharged will eventually die. And since the battery pack on a Roadster is not your usual $100 laptop battery, people will have to pay a huge price for not finding the time for maintenance.

And a Tesla, as you know, has an electric motor. There is lot less maintenance required for the vehicle when compared to a vehicle with a combustion engine. So it’s not too difficult to pay attention to the charge in the battery packs. And the company has designed the car in such a way that it warns the owner (and even the company, in the case of the latest Roadster) when the battery is low. The owners who ended up with a brick might have ignored all the warnings.

So who is culpable here?

Tesla has this to say in response to Degusta’s article: “All automobiles require some level of owner care. For example, combustion vehicles require regular oil changes or the engine will be destroyed. Electric vehicles should be plugged in and charging when not in use for maximum performance. All batteries are subject to damage if the charge is kept at zero for long periods of time. However, Tesla avoids this problem in virtually all instances with numerous counter-measures. Tesla batteries can remain unplugged for weeks (or even months), without reaching zero state of charge. Owners of Roadster 2.0 and all subsequent Tesla products can request that their vehicle alert Tesla if SOC falls to a low level. All Tesla vehicles emit various visual and audible warnings if the battery pack falls below 5 percent SOC. Tesla provides extensive maintenance recommendations as part of the customer experience”.

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To get the attention of petrol-heads off their gas guzzlers, electric car manufacturers have to make their cars as jazzy as their cousins running on fossil fuels.

Tesla recently unveiled its Model X, an all-electric cross between a SUV and a minivan, that could indeed make some hard-core petrol motorists rethink their loyalties.

The car is big for an electric car, capable of seating seven passengers quite comfortably in three rows and yes, all in front facing positions. More X-factors are included in Tesla’s new creation, the most eye-catching one being the ‘falcon wing’ rear doors which gives it that sexy appeal usually reserved for sports cars.

Let’s take a peek under the hood of this clean car and see whether it can provide the juice that will do justice to its good looks.

The car will be available in rear as well as four-wheel-drive versions, with two electric motors in the latter model reportedly having the grunt to push the car from 0 – 60 mph (96.5 km/h) in just 4.4 seconds.

Model X is based on the same platform as Tesla’s Model S with some added bulk. The increased weight will affect its range though (expected to be around 10 percent less than Model S). But still it will provide a range of 160 miles with the standard battery pack and it can be extended to 230 or 300 miles depending on the battery pack upgrades used.

The Model X is set for production in 2013 or 2014 for a 2015 release. The price for this beauty will be somewhat the same as Model S, which starts at US $49,900.

[ source ]

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You might remember my article from a couple years ago when I said that plug-in electric cars are not the future. Even so, there is a big push toward hybrids and electrics these days and it really represents the resurgence of a pre-existing idea. As such, a documentary has been made and it is titled, appropriately enough, Revenge of the Electric Car. A follow up to the 2006 film Who Killed The Electric Car?

Almost taking a Michael Moore-like approach, the new movie talks about how “as many as 5,000 modern electric cars were destroyed by the major car companies that build them” in 2006, but now the electric car is back “with a vengeance.” It features exclusive interviews with people like Bob Lutz of GM, Carlos Ghosn of Nissan-Renault, and Elon Musk of Tesla. Between them, we see cars like the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, and Tesla Roadster.

The documentary opens on October 21 in New York (Landmark Sunshine Cinema) and Los Angeles (Landmark Nuart), with more screens across the country taking on the picture in the days and months to follow. These include Nashville, Portland, Scottsdale, Houston, Detroit (how appropriate!), Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Denver, Honolulu, and more.

Check out the trailer below.

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Many people think of California when they think of electric vehicles, but the Great White North is getting into the electric frenzy too. Toyota Canada has announced that it will start assembling electric versions of the RAV4 at its Woodstock facility in the next few months. This comes via a partnership with, you guessed it, Tesla Motors.

Delivery of the RAV4 EV is expected to start some time next year, but it’s going to take even longer before Canada has the kind of infrastructure it needs to really support a network of electric vehicles. As I’ve said before, I’m not convinced that EVs are the future, but they could help to move the industry forward.

Toyota is getting some help from the government to the tune of $141 million, which will be put toward the $545 million budget needed for Project Green Light. Combined, Toyota’s plants in Cambridge and Woodstock employ about 6,500 workers. By expanding to include production of the RAV4 EV, those jobs are likely a little more secure than if they decided to build it with Tesla in California instead.

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In addition to cameras, laptops, and gaming consoles, Sony is also pretty big in the battery manufacturing department. And now they want to latch onto the rising trend in greener transportation by making and selling batteries for electric vehicles.

Sometime in the middle of this decade, Sony will start manufacturing lithium-ion batteries specifically for electric cars and hybrids. Demand for these batteries will surely increase as more people buy hybrids and electric cars, so Sony says it is prepared to build dedicated plants for this purpose too. No details about the batteries have been released, but an early prototype, measuring 257x182mm, was shown at a press conference earlier this week.

Sony will be competing against the likes of fellow Japanese company Panasonic in this realm, along with other battery makers around the world. I just hope that these batteries aren’t like the ones they used to make for our notebooks. A laptop fire is disastrous enough; I don’t want my Tesla or Prius spontaneously combusting on the freeway eitiher.

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For folks who’ve been saving up to buy a Tesla Roadster, do it now. Tesla Motors will be taking Roadster orders for another two months, and then it’s stopping production of the EV so it can focus on creating the family-friendly Model S electric sedan. The Roadster was never intended to be a big seller, but the EV became a hit and proved that it’s possible for a car to be green and sexy. The Roadster can go from 0-60 in under four seconds, and can drive 250 miles on a single charge. At the end of April, Tesla reported that worldwide sales numbered 1,650.

The EV doesn’t come cheap at $109,000, so if you don’t want to spend that much on an EV, wait for the Model S. The car will be about half the price of the Roadster, at $58,000, and it will have a range of 160 miles. Not enough miles for you? For $80,000, you can get a model with a larger battery pack that will allow for a range of 300 miles. Tesla will also sell a mid-range battery that would give you 230 miles.

The first sales of the new Model S are expected to begin around the middle of 2012. Earlier this month, Tesla started taking reservations in Canada. Tesla will produce 5,000 Model S sedans in 2012, and they have high hopes for the vehicle, as they projected selling as many as 20,000 units per year in 2013. The Model S can go from 0-60 like the Roadster, but it takes an extra second to do so at five seconds. Not too shabby considering it’s half the price of the sports car.

Photo: Tesla Model S

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Electric cars are really starting to take on all forms, from sensible compact hatchbacks to full out sports cars. Falling into neither of those categories is the Toyota RAV4 EV. The sport utility vehicle with an electric inclination isn’t exactly new, but its “Phase Zero” prototype has now been taken out for a test drive by someone not from Toyota.

As you might recall, this vehicle comes from a partnership with Tesla. However, it’s a completely different beast than the Tesla Roadster. There are about thirty of these prototypes making their way around, but they say that the Phase Zero models aren’t even version 1.0: “this is a sophisticated proof of concept.”

The 150 horsepower electric motor for the current FWD-only RAV4 EV is supposed to eventually provide the same kind of performance as its petrol V6 counterpart. This means a 0-60mph time of nine seconds. The 37 kWh battery pack is good for almost 100 miles of real world driving, which is impressive given the size and weight of this car.

In the test drive, the reviewer was impressed by the high level of regenerative braking: “let off the go-pedal while traveling at a clip of 40 mph or so, and you’re pulled down to about 5 mph in a matter of seconds.” However, he anticipates that Toyota/Tesla will be cranking down this regen when the EV eventually hits the real world marketplace. That’s a shame; because that’s really how you get the most out of an electric vehicle. You get 10-30% more range with that kind of regen.

Is an electric sport ute really the best way to use the tech? Probably not, but I don’t think they’re the future either way.

[Read]

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Most of us would generally agree that when it comes to fully electric vehicles, the Tesla Roadster (and its slight variations) is at the top of the heap. It looks like a real sports car but runs completely without the petrol. Well, Tesla will be getting a run for its money by way of the Artega SE.

Not only does it look kind of similar to the Tesla alternative, the Artega SE also happens to be a full electric vehicle. What’s more, the twin electric motors mounted over the rear axle are able to generate an impressive 380hp. By comparison, the Tesla Roadster only has 248hp (the Sport Model bumps this to 288hp).

That said, the Tesla is quicker to 60mph (3.9 seconds) than the Artega (4.3 seconds). It’s hard to say how fast the Tesla can go, since it’s electronically limited to 125mph, but the Artega SE can keep on revving until it hits 155mph. The 90 minute full charge time is pretty good too, giving you 124 miles of range.

With cars like the Tesla and Artega, the industry is finally starting to challenge the old mantra that electric cars have to slow and boring. They’re also showing us that they can be expensive: the Artega SE has its price starting at 150,000 Euro and they’re producing about 500 units a year.

[EGM Cartech via Artega]

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