View the current status of Tesla electric vehicles and the future development trend of electric vehicles

Tesla (Tesla), an electric vehicle manufacturing company, has attracted much attention because of the popularity of "Iron Man 3" and the recent skyrocketing stock prices. You may ask, what does a car company have to do with technology? Its CEO, Elon Musk, is the prototype of the Iron Man movie version (he even made a guest appearance in the second part), and is also the founder of the famous PayPal. After reselling PayPal for $ 1.5 billion in 2002 to eBay, he became SpaceX, a private space launch company, which immediately changed the life of traditional cars: cars use no oil and use electricity. This article introduces Tesla's history from several difficulties to the top of the wave of innovation. Perhaps, in the next era, there will be no obvious boundaries for technological products; the next one that surprises people like Apple is an automobile company.

Author's Note: The sources of information in the article are all from the Internet and direct listening and speaking (excluding hearsay), only dare to say as much as possible to be true, and forgive me if there are errors. The author is not a professional in the automotive industry. The analysis and conclusions in this article are for reference only. Professionals are welcome to correct me if there is any mistake.

Sources of information in the article: 1. Movies "who killed the electric cars" and "Revenge of electric cars"; 2. Print media: EV world, Greentechmedia, Greencar report and many mass media; 3. Oral: three co-founders, strongman JB And several of the top 20 Tesla old employees, Jianglan senior Alan (will be mentioned later); 4. Organization: National Electric Vehicle Association, California Electric Vehicle Association.

It ’s been more than 7 years since I followed Tesla Motors and Elon Musk, and I did n’t get any response from publicizing this person and the company 5 years ago. I remember in 2008 that my friend and I said that Joe Gang ’s combat effectiveness is a scumbag compared to Eligo ’s technical innovation (of course, I also appreciate Joe Gang ’s). some. And recently, because of the positive changes in Tesla's stock price, it has attracted more and more people's attention, and I'm always happy anyway. After following this for so long, many of the company ’s early veterans were also my friends. Looking at the articles on the Internet and the reports of the media and bank analysts, I always felt that I should write an article to try to restore the company ’s history as much as possible The angle tells everyone that this company, why this group of people give power, in what areas, and to what extent.

Tesla's stock price trend in the past six months

The past and present of electric vehicles

First, the origin of modern electric vehicles. Everyone knows about traditional electric cars. Grandpa Benz can do it more than 120 years ago. It uses a voltaic battery and a DC motor, but the electric technology at that time was too backward. This kind of car is basically a useless and huge. expensive. A diesel locomotive based on a cylinder-piston drive system, which has been developed for 200 years soon, has been developed. Here, I would like to express my gratitude to Boyle, Mallory, Jacques Charlie, Gallusac and Sir Kelvin for their daily equations at home. Outstanding contribution made.

The ignition of modern electric vehicles originated in California. Around 1990, the California Air Quality Bureau (CARB) adopted the Zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate to control the extremely poor quality control at that time, and PM2.5 reached a heinous 25 or more at that time (today Dropped to about 10). The California government is estimated to be the most unreasonable local government in the world. The basic meaning is that regardless of whether you have difficulties, the following 7 manufacturers: GM, Toyota, Honda, Ford, Nissan, and Chrysler must produce a certain number of electric vehicles. Otherwise, get out of California.

How to judge whether a company is powerful? Not when it makes money, but when it faces crisis and change. Not surprisingly, in addition to GM and Toyota, the unified response of the other five manufacturers is to pay fines and lobby the California Legislative Council (Nissan was very counseling, but since the Lebanese CarlosGhosn has been a leader, it has been a lot of power, this is also a post) . Around 1994, Toyota launched the Rav4 electric version, and GM launched the EV1, which shocked the world. We focus on this EV1.

EV1 is a weird car today, especially on the fourth ring road in Beijing. The left and right are luxury supercars driven by children of XXX. This car looks no different from asking for a car, but it was absolutely It represents the new power of this world. In 2008, I was lucky to meet Brother Ron, the third buyer of EV1. Fortunately, he drove his 14-year-old car. It accelerated smoothly and was comfortable to drive. The feeling on the spaceship in the movie "Spacewalking". This concept is ahead of its time, with excellent performance. The world's first truly modern electric car makes many people see the possibility that electric car technology can match or even surpass the gasoline car technology platform. Of course, in the eyes of experts, transcendence is inevitable. The first expert is Alan Cocconi, chief designer of EV1.

Alan's status is not only ignored in China, but also in the United States where modern electric cars are born. His contribution and status to electric vehicles is equivalent to von Neumann's contribution to computer systems, in contrast, his contribution is even relatively high. His three classic patents in the early 1990s:

1. Integrated motor drive and recharge system Patent number: 5099186

2. Combined motor drive and battery recharge system Patent number: 5341095

3. Electrical component assembly with heat sink patent number: 5060112

Laid the structure of modern electric vehicles: the core components of electric vehicles are divided into three parts: electric motor group, battery and car charger. The car charger accepts battery power and then drives the motor with the correct rated power. The key of the motor unit is the controller, the key of the battery is the control of voltage, current and heat, and the key of the car charger is the conversion of voltage and power. The entire system needs to control signals through CANbus, and at the same time transfer power through high power cable.

In the computer field, Von Neumann proposed a bunch of theories and went on to do other things, but in the field of electric vehicles, Alan not only published patents, papers and basic theories, but also worked out within 4 years of General Motors. The mass-producible prototype has to admire me. You know, in 1994, there were no today's lithium batteries, they were all lead-acid batteries, and he used AC asynchronous motors, which were relatively expensive at the technical level at that time. In this way, he also produced an electric car of 100 kilowatts (134 horsepower) and 140 kilometers of battery life, and produced more than 2,000 vehicles! Of course, I admire him completely when I first opened the front cover of the EV1. In front of me, there was a capacitor larger than my fist. When I met a rogue at night, I could take off the defender. As far as the connection reliability of this thing can last for more than 14 years, I can only say one service word.

Later, I had a phone call with Uncle Alan and felt the energy of a traditional American mad scientist. He speaks quickly, and his brain is faster than his mouth. He is the type who can confuse tequila with No. 95 gasoline without spending time in the office on Saturday night. Of course, he is not for Elon, his insight is limited. The advantage of the older generation of American engineers is a solid foundation, and the disadvantage is the slow replacement of knowledge. Alan founded the first influential modern electric vehicle company, AC propulsion, in 1992, and cooperated with GM to do EV impact, which is what we often say, EV1. Later, he worked with Toyota to do Scion Ebox, and BMW ’s MiniE It is a classic model. Of course, the most brilliant thing is to provide technology to Tesla's flagship sports car Roadster, which is why AC is so detailed. In the end you will find that almost all the core technologies of electric vehicles of all the major manufacturers in the world now have a one- or two-generation inheritance relationship with AC propulsion.

Inside the Tesla Model S full of technology (the picture shows the tester, so he wore a helmet)