A battery pack producer has launched a brand new resolution for Tesla Roadster with ageing battery packs. It will slash the automotive’s weight by about 400 lbs, nevertheless it’s not low cost.
In some ways, the Tesla Roadster sparked the electrical car revolution.
It was the primary commercially accessible shopper EV with lithium battery cells – enabling over 200 miles of vary on a single cost.
The car had comparable or higher efficiency than many different gas-powered automobiles in its phase.
The Roadster had its drawback. It was a suboptimal resolution because it was nonetheless closely based mostly on the Lotus Elise and never designed from the bottom as much as be electrical, nevertheless it did its job as a proof-of-concept.
Tesla solely manufactured about 2,000 of them between 2008 and 2011 earlier than transferring on to the Mannequin S and different car packages that had been constructed to be electrical from the bottom up.
Regardless of being 13 to 16 years previous, many Roadsters are nonetheless doing effectively. Electrek’s personal Jamie Dow drives his day by day. That’s regardless of Tesla not doing something with the Roadster program since 2017 when it launched the Roadster 3.0 substitute pack.
Battery know-how has improved quite a bit since then, and an organization has determined to reap the benefits of that and provide a brand new battery pack for Tesla Roadster house owners.
re/cell, a Texas-based provider of remanufactured battery packs for EVs, has unveiled a brand new Roadster battery pack that goals to slash lots of of kilos off of the sports activities automotive.
Not like Tesla’s newest automobiles, that are geared up with skateboard-like platform battery packs, the Roadster has a pack that sits behind the seats within the again and the modules are within the form seen above.
It does trigger issues with balancing the burden of the car.
The pack is ready to obtain the Roadster’s peak energy output, nevertheless it must be much more enjoyable to drive by shaving as much as 400 lbs off of the automotive’s unique 2,877 lb (1,305 kg) weight.
It does include a decrease power capability than the unique 53 kWh, however you must be capable of obtain very comparable vary (over 220 miles) because of the effectivity achieve from the burden loss.
Listed here are the complete specs of re/cell’s new Roadster battery substitute pack:
- Peak Energy Output: 260 kW / 285 kW
- Weight Financial savings: as much as 400 lbs / 180 kg
- Quantity Financial savings: 3.7 cu ft / 100 liters
- Vitality Capability: 38 kWh / 47 kWh
- Rated Vary: 220-240 miles / 350-390 km
- Cell Kind: 18650 / 3500 mAh
- Cell Configuration: 31p99s / 39p99s
re/cell describes a few of the enhancements that they had been capable of make to the pack:
The revolutionary cooling-block design is a single-piece molded core with Palladium-class cooling ribbons for improved cooling and temperature administration. The contact space for warmth switch is 50x bigger than the cooling tubes used within the unique Roadster sheets and the general floor space for cooling and heating is now greater than double. No extra vacant cooling voids permitting for decent spots or uneven cooling or heating – the whole cell is now totally encapsulated and temperature managed!
Nevertheless, this provide is just not going to be for everybody since Roadster house owners should be keen to take a position $28,000 of their ageing car, which is the worth of the pack in the event you give your current pack to re/cell.
Apparently, the corporate can also be excited about providing different upgrades that may be enabled by area freed up by the brand new pack.
For instance, re/cell believes it will be simpler to make the pack able to DC fast-charging. liquid cooling for the PEM and MotorÂ
Electrek’s Take
I actually loved driving the Roadster 3.0, and I’d be curious to see how significantly better it will deal with with 14% much less weight.
There are simply no different electrical automobiles on the market that weigh simply 2,400 lbs. Even a Fiat 500e weighs practically 3,000 lbs.
I can’t look ahead to small electrical sports activities automobiles round 2,500 lbs. They need to be a lot enjoyable and it feels like this, regardless of not being designed from the bottom up for it, might be an fascinating preview.
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