Tesla Sets New World Record for Distance Driven on Single Charge

Andrew Williams, Gas2.org, November 2nd, 2009

A US-built Tesla Roadster has broken the world record for the distance traveled by an electric production car on a single charge. While competing in the Global Green Challenge, Australian Simon Hackett and co-driver Emilis Prelgauskas drove an incredible 313 miles before the batteries finally died in their Roadster.

Until now, the record has been held by another Tesla Roadster, after completing a 241 mile road rally on one charge.

The as yet unofficial record was set after the pair drove a gruelling route from Alice Springs to the Northern Territory. After clocking up an astonishing 500km they still had an estimated 3 miles of charge remaining.

Speaking about the feat, Hackett told reporters, “Emilis and I have decades of experience flying gliders competitively and we applied the same energy conservation techniques to our driving.”

Image Credit - Autocar

Tags: australia, car, cars, challenge, charge, distance, driven, electric, ev, evs

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Comment by Dr. Paul A. Curto on November 3, 2009 at 4:36pm: Yup. That's the principle involved with the flywheel.

Comment by W. Dan Chance on November 3, 2009 at 3:17pm: So you are saying that the kinetic energy momentum of the vehicle that is normally wasted when we apply the brakes (so we can come to a stop before the kinetic energy would be drained away by friction and gravity) is instead stored in a flywheel that then can reduce the need for gasoline/diesel/solar/what-have-you for restoration of movement?

Comment by Dr. Paul A. Curto on November 3, 2009 at 1:12pm: Dan,
NASA Langley's RP46 polyimide is a composite when used with sheets of carbon or nylon fibers. My home page here has a link to a paper that I co-wrote on the properties of many space-age composites. This stuff is cheap, very strong, and can be fabricated into anything you like. It's also good to 700 F!

Batteries, like on the Prius, gain their energy from the braking system of the car. When you apply the brakes, the kinetic energy of the motion of the vehicle drives an electric motor which recharges the batteries while braking. The motor accelerates the car using battery power while accelerating. With a mechanical flywheel, the spinning mass of the wheel is accelerated by this energy instead while braking, and accelerates the car with its energy when starting out.

Here is a Wiki article on this technology.

Comment by W. Dan Chance on November 3, 2009 at 11:58am: I know what Carbon Fiber can do for car bodies and frames but I know nothing about composites unless that is just another name for carbon fiber. Please explain how flywheels improve mileage in spite of the principal that you can't create more energy than you put into it and putting energy into it takes some other form of energy: gas, CNG, H2, solar, elec, etc.

Comment by Dr. Paul A. Curto on November 3, 2009 at 11:18am: Jim,
You're not alone. Battery technology has not improved much in over 40 years. Lighter cars will save at least 50% on fuel -- just use composites for the frame. Flywheels are all you need for city traffic, around one kWh. Much better than batteries -- no pollution! A 100 MPG auto is a piece of cake.

Comment by Jim Martin on November 3, 2009 at 11:09am: Battery tech should increase to allow even better results in the future. Lighter cars will also help. I would like to see someone use flywheels energy storage to replace most of the batteries.

Comment by W. Dan Chance on November 3, 2009 at 7:53am: Wow! I know you are proud of him as you have right to be. Tell him from all the Pickens team that we are too.

Comment by Dr. Paul A. Curto on November 3, 2009 at 7:28am: Dan,
My son's team finished 6th in SunRayce '93, but they were not losers. His teammates all became leaders in their fields (Paul is a major player with Aruba Networks in Silicon Valley). Here is a video, voiced by Alan Alda of Mash fame, documenting the race in '93. You can see what their cars were like.

Comment by W. Dan Chance on November 3, 2009 at 6:45am: I'm trying to picture your son's entry but I'm not getting anything that looks like a car... soap box derby racer with a piece of shiny plywood on top...oh that's the solar collectors. Still he and his team did well to even do research on solar. Hope he is still pursuing that interest.

Comment by Dr. Paul A. Curto on November 3, 2009 at 4:16am: My son's SunRayce '93 solar car went over 1200 miles on a set of batteries back in 1993. They did it in the Midwest, representing the University of Maryland team. Beats the Tesla over 4:1. They cheated. They used the sun during the day.