The quad of St. Petersburg College Clearwater witnessed a science storm in April.
Reptiles sat upon the shoulders of SPC faculty and students, marine life swam in their tanks and geology tables sat littered with stones of all types and colors. Students watched demonstrations of inventions that just might be the next big thing. All this occurred while Tesla car owners and experts gave students a tour of newly engineered electric cars on April 26.
Electric car technology has not been fully realized
Tesla cars are fitted with a series of lithium ion cells that are placed together to power the car, according to How Stuff Works.
Teslas are silent. You may not even realize one is running while standing next to it.
And vehicles’ batteries offer anywhere between 250-300 miles per charge. This mileage now compares to current gasoline models and shows the technological leaps that this technology has made.
Car enthusiasts have mixed feelings about the electric car boom. What has worked has worked. Why change that? One thing people fear is the overall costs and pollution that the ion cells may cause. Also, the limited amount of energy the batteries can store often comes up.
The Guardian quoted Tom Milnes, energy storage expert and CEO of Open Water Power, who said, “Lithium-ion batteries just won’t store the amount of energy required to be as useful as Musk (CEO of Tesla) promises.”
However, as the technology advances, the price per cell becomes cheaper and pollution less dominant. The batteries are able to be recycled. Processed into new lithium ion batteries after use, older batteries tend to retain 80 percent of their charge even after years of service in a car. Lithium also tends to be easier to extract. In terms of fossil fuels, where explosives and harsh extraction techniques like fracking tend to damage the environment, lithium extraction is an easy process generally done from underground ponds of briny water, as defined by How Stuff Works.
Tesla price tag
Tesla is a big name in the electric car manufacturing trade. They recently rolled out their idea for a $35,000 model before incentives, which equate to around $7,500 off the asking price. This is a huge game changer for Tesla, which could place the company in a top spot for electric car sales per the blog Car Throttle. Currently only the Chevrolet Bolt, which is still in the works, is comparable in price. After the incentives, the Bolt looks to be around $30,000 compared to the Tesla 3 price of $27,500.
The technology is not perfect, but Tesla plans to continue forward. The supercharger highway, a network of free solar-powered charging stations that Telsa has installed across the U.S., shows a strong dedication to the project that doesn’t indicate any hint of slowing down. One thing can be said for certain – SPC students and faculty enjoyed the event. On top of learning about reptiles, anatomy and geology, they also learned about electric cars from Tesla car owners.