Friday, January 7, 2011

Public Charging of Snowy Tesla


The company has installed a weather proof electrical outlet, which is openly available to any electric car owner who wants to charge their car with free electricity generated at our location from our solar panel array. You can actually power your electric car with clean energy from the sun generated at the location where you top-up your battery.

Today we had another visitor take advantage of the offering, this time from Tesla Motors themselves! Michael Sexton, Senior Sales Advisor for Tesla Motors in New York City stopped by to visit on his way into New Haven. I showed him our manufacturing operations, we had lunch, and then he left with a full "tank" of sun juice!

As you can see, when he left, the snow was accumulating. I'm often asked how the Tesla Roadster performs in snow. As Michael illustrates - quite fine. He has snow tires mounted, and with the car's electronic traction control, it performs quite well. In fact, the battery weight is perfectly distributed over the tires of the rear-drive car.

As the Tesla illustrates, battery operated vehicles, including delivery trucks or fleet operations, need not be worried about cold weather or slippery surfaces. It is a vehicle like any other, but simply is powered by electricity rather than petroleum.

NOTE: It wasn't that long a stay to charge up the car, it started snowing during the first photo and was coming down at a good pace by the time he left.