What makes Tesla different from any other car makers out there?

Let’s run back down the timeline to 1996 when the first mass production electric car was made by General Motors called the EV1. Just over a 1000 units were produced but this saga ended in a controversy. Abundance of fossil fuel and ample research and development in IC (internal combustion engines) overpowered the idea of investing in electric cars at that time. The technology to produce EV deviated too much from the mainstream research then.  Furthermore, the battery, electric motors were not successful enough to act as a viable alternative  to conventionally gas powered cars. 

Now let’s come back to 2008 when Tesla released  its first car,  the famous Tesla roadster. Although it wasn’t as successful as anticipated, it proved to be a decisive and critical  first step for Tesla in its journey towards being the world’s most advanced, valuable, and successful EV manufacturers of all time. Failures of  Roadster provided valuable lessons, allowing Tesla to come up with improved and more efficient designs in the future.  Aforementioned combined with the competent leadership of Tesla CEO Elon Musk paved the company’s path to success. 

One of the biggest challenges was battery technology. Earlier in the day, electric motors were unsuitable for faster speed and larger mileage. Thus, Tesla had  to come up with an advanced battery that could provide both range and performance. 

Electric motors are known to have a linear torque graph across all the rpms unlike IC engines that have a peak torque at a specific rpm. Basically, the moment you floor the throttle you’ll be hugged by the seats and it just gets faster and faster. (Trust me, this feels amazing!) Now, since we have a fewer number of non-stationary parts compared to gasoline cars, Tesla vehicles have more than abundant space both in trunk and frunk (front trunk). One of the very important factors that affects the performance and handling of a car is the positioning of centre of mass. The battery pack, a structural part of the car packed into the floor of the vehicle, opening the doors for lower center of gravity. The performance has been so mind boggling that it could take on the fastest car in production on the planet – Bugatti Chiron (with W16 quad turbo setup). Now we have the battery performance, vehicle performance and practical enough to store your luggage. Not to forget to mention the design is one of the lowest drag coefficient cars ever made with highest safety ratings. When you’re going that fast you need to cut through air like a knife to move efficiently without any losses and maximum safety. So the recipe for perfect EV is ready. What next? We need a network of gas stations to charge your electric car wherever you go. Tesla simultaneously focused on creating  a network of supercharger stations across the world. You never have to worry about your vehicle being dead with more than 30,000 superchargers across the world. Doing something so extensive in a limited span of time is something only Tesla was capable of. This organization is bringing the change in vehicular industry and challenging automotive giants like VW, Toyota, GM and Ford. 

Today the whole automotive industry is shifting towards electric vehicles. It practically becomes easier for the late joiners because all the first challenges and difficulties were faced by Tesla and resolved. Each company innovates on some tweaks but relies on the same fundamental infrastructure of battery packs in the floor and direct motors drive. Tesla vehicles represent less of cars and more of gadget on wheels. 

Let’s talk about technology. Autonomous driving or what we call FSD (Full Self Driving) capabilities. Apart from performance, range and storage. Tesla is focused on autonomous driving using a very sophisticated network of ‘eyes’ (Radar, Lidar, camera and GPS) across the vehicle to know in real time where it is driven. Coupled with AI (Artificial intelligence) to further process what it sees and drive it for you. Just like a human driver that becomes better at driving over time, Telsa learns from surroundings for improved FSD everytime you take it out on the road. Such powerful hardware equipped with ground breaking software is what makes Tesla, T E S L A today. The name is a benchmark in EV and engraved forever in the history of Automobiles.

What is Active Aerodynamics?

 

We all have heard about the term Aerodynamics so far, if not I have an article shared previously click here to get some basic idea about it. Coming back to today’s topic “Active Aerodynamics”.  The term active itself coins the meaning that includes something which is active, something that moves or changes, which makes changes in Aerodynamics.

The technology is not new, but recently introduced in Automotive world. We have all been in an airplane at least once and preferred to sit on a window seat to gaze at the world from a height. But at that point if you notice the flaps on the airplane wings are constantly in motion, making symmetric movement to change the direction, altitude or speed of that aircraft. The concept behind this is to constantly change the lift, drag and force by moving the mechanical or physical components as per requirement.

 

Well this was the utilization of Active Aerodynamics in an airplane, question arises why do we use them in cars? They don’t fly. The answer lies in the limitation of power generated and weight of a hyper car. We have made as big engines as we could using all available technology to churn out the maximum power to weight ratio. We have used all the lightest material we could to reduce the weight of a hyper car. After reaching the limits of these factors, one thing that was still hinder the top speed achievement of a hyper car was air. How to cut the air in such a way that minimum drag is produced. Aerodynamics till date were designed only assuming the car achieving top speed in straight line. But practically that is not the case as we lap on race track, carving corners at high speed was the next big agenda. As we all know the car while turning faces different forces on different sides and also the wheel travels differs from outer wheel to inner wheel. This also means that the air in that region also reacts differently on each side of the car while negotiating a corner.

 

Hence a solution was pulled out by adding movable minimum parts in front spoiler (splitter) and rear spoiler (wing) computer operated at fraction of second programmed to move as per corner requirement to cut the air in such a way that it reduced drag in the most optimum way but also gives added benefits such as more stability, reduction in roll over, increased traction and as a result increased speed round the corner where the car feels more planted to the asphalt. Some deflect air to reduced drag, while others direct air to engine compartment for cooling, some focuses to throw air in intake, some of them focuses on cooling brakes and the possibilities are endless.

 

This how technology borrowed from aircraft helps us to increase the potential of already super-fast cars currently available on grid. Some of the largest automobile giants mentioned below have introduced these in their top notch supercars lineup.

• Lamborghini
• Ford
• Porsche
• Koenigsegg
• Zenvo
• Pagani
• Ferrari

 

 

 

Heard about 0-400-0?? Let’s have a look at what it takes to mark those figures!!

Recently 2 videos went viral in car world, with same title 0-400-0. For those who are still not aware about what 0-400-0 is, I’ll throw some light on it. 0-400-0 is nothing but speed in kmph. It says, starting from 0 kmph hitting the 400 kmph on speedometer and braking aggressively again back to 0. Pretty simple isn’t it? But what if I told you all these was done under 45 seconds?? Yes under 45 seconds, game changing figures now.

So recently 2 cars fell for this challenge, first the Bugatti Chiron, The main carryover piece from the Veyron is the 8-litre W16 quad-turbocharged engine, though it is heavily updated. The Chiron has 1,103 kW (1,500 PS; 1,479 bhp) of power and 1,600 N·m (1,180 lb·ft) of torque starting from 2000 rpm. Its predecessor Veyron SS makes 220 kW (299 PS; 295 bhp) less than the new Chiron, the Veyron produces 883 kW (1,200 PS; 1,184 bhp).

Like its predecessor, the Veyron, it has a carbon fibrebody structure, independent suspension and a Haldex AWD system. The carbon fibre body has a stiffness of 50,000 Nm per degree.

The Chiron can accelerate from 0–97 km/h (60 mph) in 2.4 seconds according to the manufacturer, 0–200 km/h (120 mph) in 6.5 seconds and 0–300 km/h (190 mph) in 13.6 seconds. In a world-record-setting test, Chiron reached 400 km/h (250 mph) in 32.6 seconds, after which it needed 9.4 seconds to brake to standstill.

The Chiron’s top speed is electronically limited to 420 km/h (261 mph) for safety reasons. The anticipated full top speed of the Bugatti Chiron is believed to be around 463 km/h (288 mph). And it took 42 seconds for 0-400-0.

The other car is the Koenigsegg Agera RS, The Agera is powered by an in-house developed 5.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine which produces 701 kW (940 hp) at 6900 rpm and 1,100 N·m (810 lb·ft) of torque at 4000 rpm. Total weight of the engine is only 197 kg (434 lb) thanks to a carbon fiber inlet manifold and the aluminium construction. The transmission is a 7-speed dual clutch with paddle shifters. It is the first dual clutch transmission to feature only one input shaft. The second clutch slows down the input shaft during up shifts in order to reduce the time it takes to synchronize the next gear, resulting in faster shift times. Most notably, the transmission weighs only 81 kg (179 lb). This car made a world record by smashing the challenge in 36.44 seconds!!

In what aspects are these cars different?

1) The main component is the power house, both the cars are equipped with atleast 900 horses and are not naturally aspirated.

2) The weight of entire vehicle is kept low to reduce all the forces acting on it.

3) The aerodynamics and highly responsive transmission.

4) Traction control and launch control are few add-ons.

5) Specially designed tires to avoid skid or drift while delivering such high amount of torque.

This is what it takes to hit 0-400. Now let us talk about 400-0 (Braking) part.

1) Super ventilated and light weight discs, to stay cool under such intense braking.

2) The abrasive material in callipers should have high value of co-efficient of friction.

3) The rubber used in tyres should be again offering a great traction.

4) To add something extra in braking, air brakes is also used to stop all the 940 and 1500 horses all together!!

Click here to check out the video!!

Electric Vehicles are the future of automobile, but how will it affect the world?

Yes, this is one of the most trending topic when it comes to electric vehicles. We all know sooner or later we will be running out of fossil fuels as they’re limited sources of energy. So the only reliable option left is electricity. But there was a time when electric vehicles looked like these, and probably as fast as bicycles with very short range.

At that point of time, the world never would have thought that these were the next generation breeds. Constant research and innovations were carried out throughout and maximum efforts were made to pull the capabilities of electric vehicles near to gasoline vehicles. No one was ready to sacrifice the performance of vehicle for the sake of environmental benefits for obvious reasons. And after all these efforts this is what current generation electric vehicles looks like.

The above displayed car is Tesla SP100D, which I’ve talked about in previous articles. The superbike is Lighting LS-218, happens to be the worlds fastest superbike. The good thing about electric vehicle is that we have less components compared to traditional vehicles and hence we can achieve the best power to weight ratio. So here we can conclude that at this point, we have reached the pinnacle of electric vehicles, and more revolutionary technology is lining up.

But then the question arises, if the entire automobile world shifts towards electric power. From where to generate this amount of electricity to fulfil the requirements?

Currently we have Thermal, Nuclear, Solar, Wind, Sea, etc sources to generate electricity, which produces adequate amount of electricity. But the implementation of electric vehicles will raise the bar of required electricity so high that it will be very difficult to cope up with. Also by generating electricity we’re somehow somewhere polluting the planet.

So yes efforts have been made to make electric vehicles fast, reliable, and better in every aspect than compared to IC engines. But now we need to work on generation of clean electricity with least pollution and maximum output to feed each and every requirement.

Why German cars and German technology is renowned worldwide?

Now having selected this topic to talk on, Today first I would like you all to just recollect all the names of German Car Manufacturers you know about and then you can verify with the list I'm providing below to see if you missed out any because I'm sure enough you'll miss out many.

AUDI

BMW

MERCEDES BENZ

PORSCHE

VOLKSWAGEN (a gigantic group now owning Lamborghini, Ducati, Bentley, Bugatti, MAN, Scania, Skoda)

ADAM OPEL AGALPINA 
BORGWARD

CITYEl

HARTE

JETCAR

LOTEC

MANSORY

MELKUS

PEGASUS

RUF AUTOMOBILE 

SMART

YES!

BITTER CARS
GUMPERT
ISDERA
KEINATH
ADLER
AUTO UNION AG
DKW
BORGWARD
Eisenacher Motorenwerk(EMW)

And few more which are out of sources as well. So far after going through the list, you'll realise it's most of the automotive world apart from few Japanese, British and American car makers. A country as tiny as 357,376 km² with population of  80,632,655 (LIVE) is still able to gain a control over all these automotive brands and maintains the quality to stand out in its class. Now the fact is clear why Germany is known as "The Automobile Hub". 

Curiosity further arises in our minds, What makes that possible? Why can't the other countries manage to do the same even after having all the resources available to them? The answer is pretty simple. It is the quality of education, design of study methodology, courses, and standardisation of each University. A student perusing any degree over there will never worry about financial aid or family because that is being taken care by the Union. Secondly we're all aware about the fact how peculiar they're when it comes to punctuality. Further more during World War II, the brand like BMW was already amongst the big names in engine manufacturers for airplanes, which further motivated it to produce Cars and Bikes as well. So Germans stepped in this league as early as possible by implying the best technology available and discovered by them. The research and advancement in Science and Technology was never standstill and it is still dynamic today which makes them the ultimate masters in doing what they're good at.

Not just Automobile but they're also Top level players in heavy industry and electrical sectors. Where we all know about names such as

SIEMENS

BOSCH

BAYER

DAIMLER

HOCHTIEF, etc.

By far most of the aspects of engineering are covered  with best education and opportunities. Inspite of the tribulation given by the world wars, Germany still stands tall on it legs with pride. Which is motivating for each one out there.

Danke (Thank you)

Aerodynamics, heard of it but never really knew what it is exactly. Let’s brush up some physics.

Aero it self suggests that it has some association to air or in engineering terminology fluid particles. So aerodynamics is the study or observation of ways how an object reacts physically to moving air. Why Lamborghini Sesto Elemento is unable to fly even after being lighter than a Boeing 787 Jet? Aerodynamics will answer your question. 

So what forces are constituent part of Aerodynamics? Basically 4 forces, namely 1) Lift, 2) Weight, 3) Thrust & 4) Drag. The perfect ratio and values of these forces results in the amount of how your designed object will react to air flow.
Cars and Bikers in this century are becoming more and more faster. No doubt our IC engines are the core reason for this as the engineers are able to withdraw higher amount of horse power from them. But ever thought why they are evolving in more sharper and lower levelled dimensions with so many air vents and blades?

Yes that’s because of the advancement in aerodynamics.

If a car with a particular engine power output but no aerodynamic design would go hit the mark of say 220 mph on straight patch and while negotiating a corner it handles very poorly and slides off the drive line with maximum probability of a crash due to poor traction.
Now same car engine being used in a car whose body is calculated and designed, keeping all the points of aerodynamics in mind. The car would not only have a drastic increase in acceleration but it will easily force your speedometer to reach till 240 mph. Also it will stick around the corners giving driver the confidence to enter the corner at high speed and exit like a boss. 

To make it sound simple for a layman the difference can be seen in F1 cars and the cars you drive to work or school everyday.
Aerodynamics opened the gate way for us to do something that we’re not bound to do according to nature. We can fly. Studying aerodynamics and getting inspired by a bird, it tickled human brain to break that barriers and work on it. Struggles of Wright Brothers today is one of the most important transportation system for humans and it is possible only due to aerodynamics.

Aerodynamics isn’t just about achieving speed or flying but it also plays a crucial role in thermodynamics. The heat exchange in machines with respect to air flow over them is again a part of aerodynamic. Why a cooling pad of laptop is used to cool your laptop? It’s not rocket science but a normal fan inside it increases the flow to exchange heat energy. 
Design of windmill blades, space shuttles, house hold accessories, weather forecasts, etc are few other examples where aerodynamics is the backbone.
I hope you found this helpful and next time when you hear the word aerodynamics, you’re all ready in your mind to give a speech on it.

Automation taking over? End of manual soon?

Talking about automation. In today’s world the innovations and technologies are directed towards everything automatic. From Big Plant factories to simple components such as your living room lights. Funny thing is this morning I saw an automatic pen!!! Can you believe it? A pen which clicks open and close via phone app and voice control, Click here to check it out.

The core intention of world moving towards automation is reducing human efforts and increasing precision and performance. Automation in walking? We have segway. Automation in house accessories? We have Google and Apple home devices. Automation in driving? We have auto-pilot mode and self driving cars rising up quickly. And so on..

What could be the adverse effect of it? Honestly if we ask ourselves, your inner conscience will answer you that we have been incorporating automatic devices in places where we never needed them. This is making the upcoming generation smart, no doubt but primarily lazy and stationary for hours with least physical and mental activity. For example who would you appreciate? A snipper shooter who spent years on practicing his ability to master the art of long range shots? Or A person who used an automatic gun, used technology to lock the target and blindly gave the shot on target.

Who is a better shooter according to you?

I bet most of you will come up praising the first guy for obvious reasons. Well this is how automation is taking a heavy toll away from human race. It is taking away that quality and ability that is built not bought. Man machine interaction is increasing at lightening speed. But it also carries a scary future along with it, as a wise man said “Excess of anything is never good.” And sooner or later we will be excessively dependent on machines and which could probably be carrying a dark side for humanity in many aspects.

On conclusion, I would say automation should be only at certain required platforms where needed intensively. And having said that, driving a manual Ford Mustang with 500 bhp is always fun than sitting in a self driving BMW Vision Next 100!!

What you think? Where should we limit the automation? Or should we limit it? Or is it too late now? Comment your thoughts below.

Inquisitive about Tesla? You’ve come to the right place.

Tesla has always been a topic of discussion in market today. Due to it’s magnificent growth in such a short span.

Elon musk, CEO of Tesla wasn’t the founder of it, but was associated with it since it’s inception. His leadership and valuable decisions made Tesla one of the most talked about Brands of the century which has over taken another American car makers like Ford and GM under certain criteria.

Let’s have a look at previous year’s figures,

$ 5 B equity

$ 23 B assets

$ 7 B revenue last year.
The Tesla being the only automotive company from Silicon Valley, where all the technological innovations happens. Tesla model S is the first electric sedan in the world. The car is fully functional family sedan, that offers the luxury of a premium class, accelerates like a sports car with 0-100 under 5s irrespective of it being an electric car.

The tech under the hood is a narrow artificial intelligence installed which means it is able to learn as it is used. It learns about the driver, the roads and environment it is driven into and passes the information to other Teslas in that area. This is called “Swarm intelligence”. This exchange of information improves the driving experience every single day.

Tesla model S was the first electric vehicle to win the renowned Motor Trend car of the year in 2013. Tesla’s innovation are all open source. Which means anyone can lay their hands on in it.

In 2016 Tesla announced that all of its vehicles will have a self driving hardware & technology. Tesla cars are the only cars to get an OTA (over the air) update just like your smartphone.

Let me take you through an example of this. A Tesla owner last year, complained about the steering not functioning well, so he reached out to the company and they told him to bring the car tomorrow for a checkup. That night the miracle happened and Tesla operators sitting in the office connected to the car over the air and went through the troubleshooting of it and fixed it. Next morning when the customer woke up and was on his way to the centre he was astonished to see that the car was as good as new.

The car could be summoned to you. Just give a call to car and it comes to you in office or at home.Fun fact about Tesla is first model of tesla a roadster was a massive failure. Which was laughed at in TopGear show, motivated the company to make it big.

The fastest production car tag earned by Tesla model S p100D which is 0-60 mph in 2.28s
YES, even faster than Bugatti Chiron which is 2.5s.

Tesla is not just an innovative automaker but also one of the biggest eco friendly energy suppliers on grid today. Yet there is something else tesla has achieved . Current the Tesla model X is world’s safest car.

The Tesla GIGAFACTORY will be the 2nd largest building in the world from a footprint perspective.
Which will be supplied by 100% renewable energy. It is said that 100 such factories could power the entire world.

Is this the future of automobile?

Let’s wait and see what the upcoming decade of Tesla has got for us.

The AmericasGP.

One of the most talked about round of MotoGP season was experienced today. The Circuit of Americas, dominated by Marc since a very long time. After the QP front row slots were acquired by MM93, MV25 and VR46 respectively. Followed by Zarco, Lorenzo and Pedrosa. With a great start after the flag off, Pedrosa launched his rocket ship and since first lap ruled the first position with Marquez on his rear, Rossi third and Vinãles forth. A great piece of riding displayed by Pedrosa in front till half of the race until Marc flipped his cards to play his tricks on him. Meanwhile Vinãles lost his contact and a very sad dismissal for Factory Yamaha Team. Rossi was glued to third position exploring the right time to make a move. On one turn 4 due to contact with Zarco and being off track. Rossi was penalised with 0.3 seconds in final results. Being aware of this imposition The Doctor started pulling his M1 to the limit. During this time few other riders were crashed and the world champion started showing his colors and lead the race from Dani. Last 3 laps remaining when Rossi pullled his ride and build a gap of 2 seconds which nullified the application of penalty and also gave him a second position finish in race, with Dani third. Marc managed to stand the tallest in podium today again nailing the fact that it was his track today. After the today’s race Rossi leads the world championship points with 56 followed by Maverick at 50.

Till then keep waiting for another round of MotoGP on 7th of May at Gran Premio Red Bull De España.

The round 2 of MotoGP at Argentina, let’s have a walk through all the actions.

Welcome back everyone, with second instalment of MotoGP in Argentina. After the Qualifying and weather fluctuations seen in Free practices and Qualifiers, the race day conditions were totally different. Which made each team scratch their heads for most appropriate tyre selection. Most of the riders switched from Hard to Medium compound, with few still on Hards. Another importance of this day was, The Doctor was making his 350th Premier class appearance. The only rider in history to reach this number. With the pole position dominated by the world champion Marc Marquez, beside him a surprise entry on first row of Karel Abraham and Cal Crutchlow with 3rd in start. Right after the flag off, Jorge lorenzo was out due his contact with Rear of Iannone resulting the ride through penalty for him. Later after Marc was pushing very hard in lead which made him lose his contact and slipped out on turn 2 in 22nd lap, a horrendous disaster for pole position starter. Espargaro later crashed out of line and took Dovizioso along, dismissal of both the riders. Then it was Pedrosa who slides out at same turn where Marc did and it was a bad day for Repsol Honda team. The battle for second was most eye catching part of the race today. With Cal having a good grip on second position and Rossi poised right behind him. Later calm and concentrated Rossi made a move at turn 5 and successfully won the Second position on podium with Cal 3rd and Maverick grabbing another 25 points as a race leader in championship. 

Stay tuned for some more action on 24th April at Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas.