Imagine going from 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, powered by a dual motor 690BHP electric car? Now imagine doing that on one of the wettest days of the month?
Well that’s just what happened on Thursday this week!
We were able to spend a very wet hour with the car, but you wouldn’t have noticed. The all wheel drive and very advanced traction control kept the car stuck firmly to the ground.
Tesla Model S P85
We also had a tour of the workshops and saw for ourselves what amazing technology is behind the Model S
After our Insane test drive, I spoke to Laura Hardy from Tesla Motors about the P85D and the future for Tesla. Listen to the stream above to find out more!!
This week we talk about the Tesla Powerwall. The powerwall is an electricity storage solution for homes, businesses an more!
Tesla Powerwall
The Tesla Powerwall is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery designed to store energy at a residential level for load shifting, backup power and self-consumption of solar power generation. The Powerwall consists of Tesla’s lithium-ion battery pack, liquid thermal control system and software that receives dispatch commands from a solar inverter. The unit mounts seamlessly on a wall and is integrated with the local grid to harness excess power and give customers the flexibility to draw energy from their own reserve.
The battery can provide a number of different benefits to the customer including:
Load shifting – The battery can provide financial savings to its owner by charging during low rate periods when demand for electricity is lower and discharging during more expensive rate periods when electricity demand is higher
Increasing self-consumption of solar power generation – The battery can store surplus solar energy not used at the time it is generated and use that energy later when the sun is not shining
Back-up power – Assures power in the event of an outage
The Powerwall Home Battery increases the capacity for a household’s solar consumption, while also offering backup functionality during grid outages.
The Powerwall is available in 10kWh, optimized for backup applications or 7kWh optimized for daily use applications. Both can be connected with solar or grid and both can provide backup power. The 10kWh Powerwall is optimized to provide backup when the grid goes down, providing power for your home when you need it most. When paired with solar power, the 7kWh Powerwall can be used in daily cycling to extend the environmental and cost benefits of solar into the night when sunlight is unavailable.
Tesla’s selling price to installers is $3500 for 10kWh and $3000 for 7kWh. (Price excludes inverter and installation.) Deliveries begin in late Summer in the US. Plans are for Powerwall to be available in the UK before for the end of the year with more details to follow.
Powerwall specs:
Mounting: Wall Mounted Indoor/Outdoor
Inverter: Pairs with growing list of inverters
Energy: 7kWh or 10kWh
Continuous Power: 2kW
Peak Power: 3kW
Round Trip Efficiency: >92%
Operating Temperature Range: -20C (-4F) to 43C (110F)
Warranty: 10 years
Dimensions: H: 1300mm W: 860mm D:180mm
Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid Hypercar arriving at the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone Racetrack – Photo from Porsche Facebook Page.
To celebrate it’s 10 million fans on Facebook, Porsche ran a competition offering the winner a chance in participating in a 1000 km road trip in the 918 Spyder. The car was specially wrapped to allow fans along the way to sign the car
During the trip, the 918 Spyder was joined by the Panamera S E-Hybrid and Cayenne S E-Hybrid. The convoy travelled through cities such as Oxford and Stratford, the winding roads of Brecon Beacons National Park and many others, where Porsche fans could leave their signature on the 918 Spyder.
The car was driven by Gordon Robertson, the Chief Driving Consultant at the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone Race Track, upon his arrival, we were lucky enough to catch up with him for a few minutes to find out how he had got on.
You can listen to the interview at the top of the post. Thanks to Gordon for spending the time to chat to us.
We had a wonderful day at the World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Silverstone last weekend. Not only were we guests of the wonderful people at Porsche Motorsports, we were also able to chat to the Technicians and Drivers and find out more about how the idea of Hybrid power translates to the worlds fastest racecars.
Matt Porter interviews Mark Webber about the Porsche 919 LMP1
During our day, we were able to speak to former Formula 1 driver Mark Webber who is now racing the Porsche 919 LMP1. We also spoke at length to Alexander Hitzinger who is in charge for the 919’s development as Technical Director for the LMP1 and Michael Christensen who is the works driver for the Porsche 911 RSR.
I would like to thank the ever amazing Mark Webber for his patience after a long day! Sam Lloyd at Lloyd Bell Productions and Nick Perry at Porsche Cars Great Britain for their help making the day so memorable.
Massive thanks to Paul Shalan for attending with me and taking so many AMAZING photographs!!
You can listen to this weeks episode at the top of the page or below.
Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team – Photo courtesy of Porsche
We had a very exciting weekend at Silverstone for the World Endurance Championship Qualifiers, namely 6 Hours of Silverstone which is the UK heat of the WEC which culminates in the world famous 24 Hour race at Le Mans.
The WEC LMP1 class now uses hybrid technology and following on from our series of electric and hybrid car reviews, we were interested in finding out what Porsche were doing in this area.
Porsche Motorsports and former Formula 1 driver, Mark Webber
Porsche Motorsports very kindly invited us to be their guests for the day and we were able to interview drivers, Mark Webber & Michael Christensen, plus we were also able to chat to Porsche LMP1 Technical Director Alexander Hitzinger about the technology around the car and what the future holds for us in an increasingly electric world.
To hear the interview, tune in to BBC Radio Suffolk on Monday 20th April 2015 at 11:40 and find out what Mark Webber thinks of the all new hybrid technology and how it will eventually effect us in production cars to come.
This week we talk about at the Volkswagen e-Golf, a really superb electric vehicle which successfully bridged the gap from traditional petrol or diesel car to fully fledged electric car.
This really was a superb vehicle on every level, the handling was just amazing. It was incredibly easy to drive and once I had got the handle of ‘Park Pilot’, that too was amazing. A really great car, and a head turner too!.
Thanks to VW Press Office for supplying the car with everything I would ever need and thanks to the two delivery drivers who were equally polite and helpful.
Dont forget to listen to the stream above, and wait for the full review coming soon!
This week I chat to Mark about the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV an absolutely superb four wheel drive plugin hybrid electric vehicle.
I loved driving this vehicle, it was so easy to drive and manoeuvre and is packed to the brim with it’s own gadgets.
Listen to the stream and find out more, a full in depth review is coming soon on here, so keep checking back!!
Thanks to Mitsubishi Press Office for being so kind by lending us the vehicle!!
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, plugin portCharging Woes at Waitrose
We also chatted about blocked charge bays at Waitrose. This is something I continue to witness (see above, the Golf is fully electric).
Waitrose were approached to comment on this and replied below:-
‘Our Ipswich shop has four dedicated parking bays for customers to charge their electric cars whilst shopping in-store. While we are not aware of any misuse of the electric charging bays, we will continue to regularly monitor the car park to ensure that those who require charging, can do so.’
This week I was delighted to be able to test the Nissan Leaf Tekna. This is a very nice pure electric hatchback and I have really enjoyed driving it.
Listen to the stream above and find out what I thought about it, we also talked at length about the practicalities of driving an electric car especially with the sub hundred mile ranges many EV drivers experience at the moment.
Massive thanks to Nissan Press Office for providing the vehicle and the their support.
When thinking about electric cars, most people conjure up images of 60 sci-fi movies with passengers sitting in a bubble of glass on empty elevated roads. This is very far from the reality of 21st century electric vehicles, which are very similar in look to their petrol drinking cousins and literally bursting at the seams with technology.
Over the past months, I have been given the amazing opportunity to test five of these vehicles, from the quirky two seater Renault Twizy to the awesome BMW i8. However nothing was going to prepare me for the most recent vehicle, designed and built by a Silcon Valley based company headed up by Elon Musk who spends the other half of his day heading up SpaceX, the private space rocket business.
This week we chat about the Tesla Model S P85+ electric vehicle.
If you haven’t already heard about the Tesla, you should! They are producing amazing electric sports cars with even more amazing range. Tesla were amazingly generous in allowing me to borrow a top of the range vehicle for 6 days. It’s simply superb in every way. Over the past 6 days, I have made a few new friends and have been asked numerous questions about the car.
Tesla-Model-S-at-Shotley-Gate
Listen to the stream above where I talk to Mark about my time using the car. A full in depth review will be coming over the next few days.
Thanks to Tesla Motors for lending me the car, particularly Laura who has been extremely patient. To find out more about Tesla, you can view their website here
Tesla Model S P85+ in front of Orwell Bridge in Ipswich
Thanks also to Paul Eaton, who very kindly gave up an afternoon of his time to stand, crouch and lay in the freezing cold taking some superb photos of the car. You can view his Flickr profile here
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The car was driven by Gordon Robertson, the Chief Driving Consultant at the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone Race Track, upon his arrival, we were lucky enough to catch up with him for a few minutes to find out how he had got on.
