Tesla Company

Tesla's Mission and Objective

Tesla was created in 2003 by a group of engineers (Martin Eberhard, Ian Weight, Marc Tarpenning, Elon Musk, and JB Straulbel) with the goal of using technology to develop electric vehicles (Morris, 2014). The company's objective was to be at the forefront of speeding the global transition to sustainable energy. Tesla aspired to be the first company to transition from regular gasoline automobiles to electric ones. Tesla is currently the market leader in the production of electric automobiles, as well as scalable energy and associated products. By advocacy, Tesla has persuaded the world that it is better to abandon fossil fuels in favor of alternative energy and environmental preservation. Over the years, the company has slowly reshaped the world's thinking about the use of innovation to conserve the environment (Rezvani, Jansson & Bodin, 2015). Tesla will continue to manufacture more affordable cars in the future to meet the demand of the average consumer. The move will accelerate adoption of clean energy and conservation of the environment. Combination of the various clean and sustainable energy sources will drive the society to a sustainable environment with low pollution levels.

Tesla Electric Car

According to Golembiewski, Stein, Sick & Wiemhöfer, (2015), the introduction of the electric car in the automotive industry by Tesla was a relatively new concept across the world. Cars such as Tesla Model S will not only help consumers save on the operation cost but also contribute towards environmental conservation. Unlike the traditional cars that largely contribute to carbon emissions and air pollution, electric cars will promote environmental conservation by using electric energy. The different types of pollution caused by the gasoline cars and emission of greenhouses will be solved by moving to gasoline-free vehicles like Tesla Model S. In fact, electric cars will have more positive impacts on the economy and the environment in the long run as compared to now.

Electric Cars and Sustainable Energy Ecosystem

Electric cars (EV's) use power from rechargeable batteries that are installed in them. The batteries are responsible for powering the engines. Besides, other functions like wipers and lights use the batteries. Tesla has created sustainable energy ecosystem to provide energy solutions to businesses and homeowners (Morris, 2014). Example of the products is Solar Roof, Powerwall, and Powerpack. Moreover, Gigafactory was designed to produce more lithium-ion batteries thereby helping in reducing the cost of battery cells. Tesla introduced Gigafactory to ensure that all the battery productions were done in-house, creating job opportunities while at the same time meeting the production goals and demand.

Green Energy Source

Electric cars entirely depend on electricity for charging the batteries. Consumers do not need to spend a lot of money on the ever increasing cost of fuel but use electricity which is a cheaper alternative. Moreover, it’s cheaper than cars which run on gas. Individuals spend an average of $3000 per year on gas. As governments continue to embrace the contributions of Tesla in promoting environmental conservation by controlling car carbon emission, many new cars will be produced that meet the needs of average consumers (D'Ippolito, 2014). Thus, electric cars will offer better options for saving money and reducing the cost of living since less pressure will be exerted on fuels and gases. Although electric cars are considered the cleanest cars, they entirely depend on electricity which is generated from various sources. Some sources of the electricity used by Tesla include fossil fuel, natural gas, and nuclear fission. The various sources of electric energy may have a negative environmental impact in the long run given that some of the sources like fossil fuels and natural gas contribute to carbon emissions to the atmosphere. In fact, the electric grids used by Tesla are roughly 20% nuclear power, 40% coal, 10% renewable energy source, and 25% natural gas (Wang et al., 2015). Since a greater percentage of the grid is powered by burning fossil fuels and natural gases, the per-mile emission of Tesla may not be significantly different from the emissions of gas-powered cars in the long run.

Reduced Noise Pollution

Electric cars are much quieter compared to cars run on gasoline or diesel and petrol. They provide smooth at higher acceleration without making much noise compared to their counterparts. As Tesla increase the efficiency of their batteries and move towards renewable energy, the advancements will make it possible to seal the current loopholes regarding environmental conservation. Criticism based on the fact that Tesla uses coal as a source of energy to demean the advancement in the manufacture of environmentally friendly locomotives may only worsen the situation by taking the world economy backward (Bohnsack, Pinkse & Kolk, 2014). The recent developments like the introduction of Tesla Model S is a bold step towards the reliance on green energy and abandonment of dirty energy sources thereby promoting environmental conservation.

Popularity and Safety

Electric cars are growing in popularity hence creating room for manufacturing of a variety of types with unique features for the users. Moreover, the kind of testing they are subjected to helps in minimizing the possibilities of accidents (Kaiser, Kahn & Locke, 2014). Besides, the cars have airbags which can open while electricity supply disconnect from the battery is preventing injuries during accidents. People who use electric cars can save thousands of dollars due to low maintenance cost. Such savings will be beneficial from planning for the family. Moreover, the batteries contain some of the rare-earth minerals are costly to extract and hard to come by. But since companies like Tesla are slowly moving to solar energy and therefore eliminating the existing trade-off between electric cars and internal combustion cars, the use of green energy will make it possible to achieve zero emission from vehicles shortly (Sovacool, Axsen & Kempton, 2017). However, manufacturing of electric cars is more environmentally destructive compared to other cars. This because some of their components like lithium-ion batteries require a lot of energy to produce.

Conclusion

In the current economy where the environmental impact of any economic activity is closely monitored, consumers are becoming conscious of the products they consume and how they contribute to environmental pollution. Tesla Company introduced electric cars which use clean and green energy, unlike their internal combustion counterparts. Electric vehicles are known lack of emission of greenhouse gases or other harmful gases like nitrogen oxide. Governments are slowly embracing the technological advancement and therefore are encouraging members of the public to be part of the transition. Since every country wants to ensure low emissions and solve the issues related to noise and air pollution, the introduction of Tesla Model S among other models of electric cars is sufficient evidence that the issue of carbon emissions can be eliminated. As companies like Tesla continue to solve initial problems associated with electricity grids needed to run the vehicles across the countries, the country can turn to solar energy as the best alternative energy source that will be energy friendly.

References

Bohnsack, R., Pinkse, J., & Kolk, A. (2014). Business models for sustainable technologies: Exploring business model evolution in the case of electric vehicles. Research Policy, 43(2), 284-300.

D'Ippolito, B. (2014). The importance of design for firms' competitiveness: a review of the literature. Technovation, forhcoming.

Golembiewski, B., vom Stein, N., Sick, N., & Wiemhöfer, H. D. (2015). Identifying trends in battery technologies with regard to electric mobility: evidence from patenting activities along and across the battery value chain. Journal of Cleaner Production, 87, 800-810.

Kaiser, W., Kahn, M. E., & Locke, S. (2014). Accidental Environmentalists? Californian Demand for Teslas and Solar Panels.

Morris, C. (2014). Tesla motors: how Elon musk and company made electric cars cool, and sparked the next tech revolution. Smashwords Edition.

Rezvani, Z., Jansson, J., & Bodin, J. (2015). Advances in consumer electric vehicle adoption research: A review and research agenda. Transportation research part D: transport and environment, 34, 122-136.

Sovacool, B. K., Axsen, J., & Kempton, W. (2017). Tempering the Promise of Electric Mobility? A Sociotechnical Review and Research Agenda for Vehicle-Grid Integration (VGI) and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G). Annual Review of Environment and Resources, (0).

Wang, R., Wu, Y., Ke, W., Zhang, S., Zhou, B., & Hao, J. (2015). Can propulsion and fuel diversity for the bus fleet achieve the win–win strategy of energy conservation and environmental protection?. Applied Energy, 147, 92-103.