課文主文、單字與專業術語
Tesla Inc. is an electric vehicle and clean energy company based in California, USA. Tesla's products include electric cars, battery energy storage from home to grid scale, solar products and related products and services. Founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, the company's name is a tribute to inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla. Elon Musk, who formerly served as chairman and is the current CEO, said that "the overarching purpose of Tesla is to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy" and it would build a wide range of electric vehicles, including affordably priced family cars.
With the Model S, Tesla started to build an integrated computer hardware and software architecture at the center of its vehicles. Musk indicated that Tesla is a software company as much as it is a hardware company. Tesla provides online software upgrade to its cars. This allows improvement of the functionality and performance of the cars already-sold for free. Tesla is the first automaker that sells cars directly to consumers. All others use independently owned dealerships. Musk believes existing dealerships have a conflict of interest and will not promote electric cars from Tesla or any manufacturer, because they make more money servicing than selling cars, and electric cars have lower servicing costs. For this reason, Tesla sells its vehicles online rather than through a conventional dealer network. The service strategy of Tesla is to service its vehicles through proactive monitoring, remote diagnosis and repair, mobile technicians, and Tesla-owned service centers. Tesla's goal is not to make a profit on service.
Tesla's manufacturing strategy is to continuously improve the hardware of its cars, rather than waiting for announcement of a new model. Tesla's production strategy includes a high degree of vertical integration which includes producing vehicle components as well as building proprietary stations where customers can charge Tesla vehicles. Vertical integration is rare in the automotive industry, where companies typically outsource 80% of components to suppliers, and focus on engine manufacturing and final assembly.
In 2014, Tesla discreetly launched its charging network by providing chargers to hotels, restaurants, shopping centers and other full service stations to provide on-site vehicle charging at twice the power of a typical home charging station. Destination chargers are installed free of charge by Tesla-certified contractors. The locations must provide the electricity at no cost to their customers. All installed chargers are shown in the in-car navigation system. Unlike other automakers, Tesla does not use individual large battery cells, but thousands of small, cylindrical, lithium-ion commodity cells like those used in consumer electronics. Tesla uses a version of these cells that is designed to be cheaper to manufacture and lighter than standard cells by removing some safety features. According to Tesla, these features are redundant because of the advanced thermal management system and an intumescent chemical in the battery to prevent fires. Panasonic is Tesla's battery supplier. The batteries of Tesla cars are placed under the vehicle floor. This saves interior and trunk space but increases the risk of battery damage by debris or impact. The Model S has 6.4 mm aluminum-alloy armor plate. In 2020, Tesla announced a new design for their future batteries. This design will increase the range of Tesla Vehicles. It will also allow future electric vehicles prices to compete with their gas-powered counterparts. Currently, Tesla sources their batteries from Panasonic, however with the new design of the batteries Elon Musk has announced plans to manufacture the batteries in-house. The new batteries are expected to be mass-produced by 2023. They will be 56% cheaper and allow the cars to travel 54% more miles.
Autopilot is an important feature of Tesla cars in addition to clean energy. Autopilot is designed to assist drivers with the most burdensome parts of driving in order to make Tesla cars safer and more capable over time. Tesla states that current autopilot features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous. Starting 2014, all Tesla cars are shipped with sensors and software to support autopilot. Tesla upgraded its sensors and software in 2016 to support full self-driving. The system includes eight cameras, twelve ultrasonic sensors, and forward-facing radar. Musk predicted that drivers would be able to sleep in their vehicle while it drives itself. In April 2019, Tesla announced that all of its cars will include Autopilot software as a standard feature moving forward. Full self-driving software is an extra cost option. On April 24, 2020, Tesla released a software update to its full self-driving capability. With this update, cars recognize and automatically stop at stop signs. The cars also automatically slow down and eventually stop at traffic lights until the driver has indicated that it is safe to proceed. Tesla acknowledges that the software is still in a beta phase and far from being finished.