Three Oddball Tesla Patents

Originally published on TeslaMondo.

Expanding on the patent porn in the previous post, here are some oddball Tesla patents that have received little or no discussion on the net.

This first one did get some attention in EV forums. It’s a dual-battery powertrain, lithium-ion and metal-air, with one serving as the primary workhorse and the other an auxiliary backup for a selectable extended-range mode.

This second patent is even farther astray from the Tesla powertrain we know. It involves a fuel-burning “generator” to boost battery life. In other words, a Tesla hybrid! Mind you, this one is pretty old. It seems Tesla simply leapfrogged it. Musk, as you know, has called hybrid cars “amphibians” doomed to evolutionary obsolescence.

And this third one is a total mystery, at least to TeslaMondo. It appears to be a seat with anti-whiplash airbags that instantly maneuver the back and headrest into ideal crash position. Google patented a similar thing years ago. Mercedes uses headrest airbags in some models, too.

Reprinted with permission.