Tesla and sustainabilityInterductionOur first job was, to find a fitting topic based on sustainability. We both agreed to choose the topic “Tesla in connection with sustainability”. The reason why we choose this topic is because we both like Tesla and we were interested to find out more about Tesla. Also, we were asking ourselves what Tesla could have to do with Sustainability.  This document includes information and facts about Tesla in connection with sustainability. We will also try to answer questions like: are Teslas Electric-Cars so much better than gas-engine cars? Are they worth the price? First I’ll try to explain what Tesla is, what they do and what they’re trying to achieve. After that there are some facts about Tesla regarding to what they’ve achieved until now and some facts about their financial status. In the end we will make a quick outlook into the future of Tesla. What is Tesla?Tesla doesn’t only make cars, besides making cars they also investigate on energy storage and manufacture solar panels. The company that was founded in 2003 in California. The company focuses mainly in electric cars, solar panels energy storage and lithium-ion batteries. TeslaThe company was founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. The cofounders are JB Straubel, Elon Musk and Ian Wright.Eberhard and Tarpenning funded Tesla until the Series A. in February 2004 Musk led the Series A, joining the board of directors as in operational roles as well as its chairman. Musk was the controlling investor in Tesla then, providing around US$7.5 million with personal funds.Tesla began aiming for sports cars followed by mass market and mainstream vehicles.On July 11, 2005 Tesla signed contract for Roadster production, with the Group Lotus to produce “gliders”. The Roadster used an AC motor derived directly from Nikola Tesla’s original design. The Roadster was the first production EV with a range greater than 320 km per charge and the first production automobile to use lithium-ion battery cells. Between 2008 and March 2012, over 2,250 Roadsters were sold in over 31 countries.In late 2007, Tesla brought Michael Marks on board, after Michael Marks, Ze’ev Drori took his place as CEO. In October 2008, Musk became CEO and dismissed about 35% of Tesla’s workforce. Until January 2009, Tesla had raised over US$187 million and delivered about 140 cars. US$70 million had been invested by Musk himself.Tesla RoadsterThe Roadster is an electric car built by Tesla, in California from 2008 to 2012. The Roadster was the first legalised serial production electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells and drive on highways. It was also the first all-electric car to drive more than 320 kilometres per charge. Tesla sold roughly 2450 roadster all over the world in over 30 countries. The Roadster can accelerate from 0-100 km/h in roughly 3.7 seconds. The top speed is about 200 km/h. It has an average efficiency of 88%. Tesla announced their new model for 2020. It’s expected to accelerate from 0-100 km/h in about 1.9 seconds, with a top speed of over 400 km/h and a 200 kWh battery pack that should be enough to drive about 1’000 kilometres. ?Model S Tesla began shipping its Model S sedan in June 2012 and its Model X crossover SUV in September 2015. Tesla’s Model S was the world’s best-selling electric car in the years 2015 and 2016. In total the company sold more than 150,000 units at the end of November 2016. The Model S can reach ranges up to 335 miles per charge. Model XThe Tesla Model X is an all-electric, full-sized crossover SUV produced by Tesla. The Model X uses wing doors for the second and third row of seats. On February 9, 2012 the prototype of the Model X was revealed at Tesla’s design studios in Hawthorne. The Model X has a range of roughly 450 kilometres. The Model X was copied from the full-sized Model S Sedan platform. The Model X weighs about 10% more and share about 30% of its content with the Model S, both cars are produced at the Tesla Factory in California. In September 2015 the first deliveries of the Model X began. In December 2016, they reached global sales of more than 25’000 units, after 1 year on the car-market the Model X reached the seventh place on the list of the world’s best-selling electric cars.Future modelsIn 2015, Elon Musk described a future Model with falcon-wing doors, and that it would be a cheaper crossover utility that was a mix of the Model 3 and the Model X, he called it the Model Y. About 2 years after the announcement Tesla announced that the new Model Y would have the platform of the Model 3 and that they were hoping it would be cheaper than the Model 3.  I quote:”There will be future cars that will be even more affordable down the road . . . With fourth generation and smaller cars and what not, we’ll ultimately be in a position where everyone can afford the car.”—?Elon Musk at the Future Transport Solutions conference in Oslo, April 21, 2016In 2016, Musk explained his masterplan. It includes mid-size cars, cheaper, higher producible cars, with solar power roofs, pickup trucks, SUV’s as well as a sharing economy, where cars can be active even though no one is using them. He also mentioned a Tesla minibus that would be built on the Model X platform. On November 16, 2017, Tesla announced a new Model car which would be better, faster, and cheaper then their old Roadster.Are Tesla’s electric cars so much better than gas-cars?To be honest, it depends. A lot of people think that Electric cars are so much better than gasoline cars, but if you consider the production of both cars you notice that electric cars also do a lot of damage to our environment. The problem with electric cars is that, even though they don’t use gasoline to drive, the production of the lithium-ion batteries is very tricky and costs a lot of money. The reason why they are so expensive is because they have allot of rare metals inside them which have to be gathered first. This means they must dig big holes in the ground to get to those rare metals. In some cases, they even have to use ammonium sulphate to get rid of the sandy clay which is in front of the rare metals. With that problem there comes one more problem. Let’s say you’ve driven your Tesla for over 15 years and then the day comes when your batteries die. Of course, this is meant metaphorically, so your batteries aren’t working as good as they did, and you can’t use them in another way. Here we have the problem, recycling those batteries is very expensive since only a few of those batteries exist and there are only a few Companies that are specialised on recycling lithium-ion batteries. Now there is one more thing that speaks against all electric cars. The power used to recharge these electric cars comes from wherever you live, so how environmentally protective your car is, depends on how green the energy is produced in your country. So now you see, your electric car isn’t as green as it might seem to be.Are Tesla’s electric cars worth the price?If you are looking for a good affordable car we have to say, no, its not worth the price. This only goes for the old models though, since the old models cost about US$70’000. The new Model (Model 3) is way cheaper than the other ones and starts at US$35’000. The Model 3 can drive a range up to 220 miles (ca. 354 KM) per charge and can go from 0 – 60 mph (0 – 100 km/h) in only 5.1 seconds. The only part where you save money (compared to normal gasoline-cars) is by not having to spend your money on gas. Tesla even offers you 400 kilowatt hours of free charging at their charging stations. But you still must pay the bill for charging your car at your home over night.?Battery productsIn the year 2015, Tesla unveiled its battery packs and the Powerwall home. Quickly they received orders worth roughly US$800 million. In these two models there were a 7 kWh and a 10-kWh unit. Tesla also announced large-scale models for industrial units of 100 kWh, they also planned to open source its patents. Tesla expected costs to drop by roughly 30% when the productions moved to Gigafactory 1. To increase their battery manufacturing Musk announced his plans to build 3 more Gigafactories. Elon Musk offered to work with the government of Puerto Rico after they’ve experienced a hurricane. He planned to help them rebuild the solar energy grid. In 2017, Tesla brought 700 solar panels to the “Hospital del Niño,” a hospital in Puerto rico with about 3000 patients who needed to be constantly cared about. Supercharger networkSince a lot of Teslas electric cars have been sold, they started building a 480-volt fast-charging station network. In November 2017, 1032 Supercharger station have been built all around the world with 7320 superchargers. These supercharger stations provide up to 120 kWh of power and can charge their Tesla models in roughly 75 minutes. Every single Tesla car comes with the needed supercharging hardware. All cars that have been ordered after January 15, 2017 get 400 kWh for free. Meaning that they can drive round 1’600 kilometres for free, each year. All cars purchased bevor January 15, 2017 get supercharging for free.