This article is part of a short series on the history of EVs. You can find Part 1 here. The Tesla Roadster Both the compliance cars and the serious cars since 2010 have one big thing in common: they were forced into existence by pressure from the Tesla Roadster. Like … [continued]
The five co-founders of Tesla — Marc Tarpenning, Martin Eberhard, Elon Musk, JB Straubel, and Ian Wright — were certainly greenies, and the environmental value of EVs was one of their prime motivators. However, they were also rocket scientists and sports car connoisseurs, and they were well aware of another exciting advantage of electric powertrains.
It sometimes happens that a symbolic event marking the end of one era neatly coincides with an event that ushers in the next, although no one notices the concurrence at the time. In late 2003, a brief renaissance of electric vehicles came to an ignominious end, as GM rounded up and smashed its EV1 electric cars. Just a few weeks later, three Silicon Valley entrepreneurs sat down for a fateful lunch.
The past 12 years of Tesla’s growth and development has been a sight to see, and it’s been a terrific story to cover closely since 2012. This past week was the 10 year anniversary of Tesla buying its Fremont factory from Toyota and GM. Tesla cofounder and CEO Elon Musk recently reflected on the company’s growth since then and memories of that period, which feels like a lifetime ago.
Considering how much major automakers are struggling to develop their own commercially viable EVs and catch up with Tesla, it’s ironic that several of these brands did produce EVs back in the 1990s, but cancelled those models, leaving the field wide open for the California upstart.
What was the media writing about Tesla 5 years ago? What was CleanTechnica writing about Tesla 5 years ago? How does all of this compare to Tesla headlines today?
It would be hard to think of any technology more critical to today’s technological wonders than the lithium-ion battery, which is found in everything from tiny hearing aids to giant power plants. Three pioneers of our “rechargeable world” — John Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino — have now won a well-deserved Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work in developing lithium-ion energy storage technology (as reported by Bloomberg).
A couple of years ago, Nicolas Zart interviewed one of the few owners of an AC Propulsion tzero and explained the history of the transformative tzero for CleanTechnica readers. I recently ran across the article and decided it was ripe for a reprint. Enjoy! —Zach
Marc Tarpenning was already a veteran of the Silicon Valley startup scene when he and Martin Eberhard founded Tesla. Their skills in starting companies and securing financing were a big part of the reason that the company was able to get up and running so quickly. Tarpenning is also an articulate and engaging speaker, as I learned when I interviewed him for my history of Tesla. So who better to talk about startups than Tarpenning?
Motorcycle sales are half what they were 10 years ago. Can electric motorcycles reignite interest in riding a bike?
