Page 24 - YANTRAEVUE

The Prime Movers of the
Future
Words: Avinash A. (G. Hunt)
The evolution of the Engine, and subsequently
The Automobile has been staggering. In its one
and half century of reign it consistently kept on
shaping the world; and as any material thing
which influences the world it too, had conse-
quences. These consequences were as many
good as they were bad, and though we man-
aged to eliminate the most of the bad through
extensive research, we have not been able to
eliminate the most persisting and devastating
consequence: The effect the fossil-fuel based
engines had on nature.
In the latter half of the last century, our at-
tempts to make the engine bio-friendly had
been successful in a sense that they have
decreased the emissions to a great extent, but
it was too late, the engine had already taken
its toll on Nature. Our dependability on the
engine has compelled us to discard the devas-
tation it causes and having no alternative the
world obliged. Though a vast majority have
succumbed to its usage, a select few have been
hunting for a solution to the problem of emis-
sions. And in 2003, after 130 years, the solution
presented itself in the name of Tesla Motors.
Zero emission Vehicles: Tesla aims to produce
these Zero Emission Vehicles or ZEV’s for the
mass market in hopes of reducing the contri-
bution of automobiles to environmental pollu-
tion. Taking inspiration from the ideas of the
greatest inventor of his time, Nikola Tesla, the
greatest inventor of our time, Elon Musk, had
15
adapted the concept of electricity to automo-
biles and conceived electricity fuelled engines,
but this has been done before and repeatabil-
ity cannot account for fame Tesla has today.
The accountability of fame can be traced back
to how Tesla handled its marketing, a field in
which its predecessors have failed. Tesla, as
told by the experts, has been fighting a losing
battle right from its inception. Tesla’s first car
was the Roadster Sport introduced in 2008, it
was aimed at the super rich in attempts to cre-
ate a brand value for Tesla Motors. Roadster
Sport has sold less than 4000 units, a rather
low number for a brand as big as Tesla.
After four years, the next car Tesla introduced
was the Model S, unlike its expensive sibling
Model S was moderately priced. It was the
second highest-selling electric car in history,
but this still was not good news for Tesla as
it wasn’t making as much profit as it should
for functioning. Most of the revenue was
being used to set up refilling stations across
the globe, and the company was functioning
on a bare minimum. This state continued up
until the brink of bankruptcy, but betting on
a flourishing future Elon Musk, along with his
colleagues, decided to fund the production
privately with their own money.