Jul 24, 2014

Elon Musk says 500 mile range electric car will soon be possible

Tesla Electric cars have the highest energy density battery in the world, twice that of the Nissan Leaf. But their range is more than twice that of the Leaf so we come into other factors: what's the drag co-efficient of the car, how much does it weigh, what's the efficiency of the motor and gearbox, what's the rolling resistance? All those factors affect the range.

Recently Telsa Model S was assessed against a whole bunch of other cars for drag efficiency, in a drag queen contest! Our car came out best with a drag co-efficient of 0.24.

Elon says it will be possible to have a 500-mile range car. In fact we could do it quite soon, but it would increase the price. Over time you could expect to have that kind of range.

Read more »// Next Big Future