Nofossil, a Tesla model S charging. The rear plate says nofossil
Photo KDG

There was a new Tesla model S in the charge station on Voght street on Sunday. The car had a rear personalized plate: nofossil,the plates were from the state of Nevada.The Tesla S is an all electric vehicle and is manufactured in the State of California with about 30,000 in service. There are few parts that require servicing and the braking system takes the energy and generates it into electricity to charge the battery this begins immediately when takeing your foot off the accelerator.

The Tesla model S is a four door sedan type car billed as sound stage quiet. Its production replaces that of the Tesla roadster that is seen from time to time but is out of production.The production of these cars in a moderate quantity has in part provoked major car manufactures to go into the production of EVs, there is even a Cadillac model that has a range of about 70 kilometres a charge on electric but has a small 1.4 liter charging engine that can continue for nearly 500 KMs without a fuel stop, the charging engine generates electricity and puts it through the battery system similar to the concept of diesel-electric submarines .The GM Cadillac sells in the 70 thousand dollar range, The Tesla all electric about 100 thousand. GM also has the Chevy volt at less than 40,000 dollars, and Nissan Leaf in that price range.

Still thought of as a novelty they are smooth and quiet and have gotten a boost with the raising of freeway speeds to 120 KMs per hour, in BC, as a fast quite ride is likely to go over well when considering a trip.

The car was at the 90 amp AC charger and not the 120 amp DC charger, Tesla, the original mad scientist was in a contention with inventor Thomas Edison over the desirability of direct current over alternating current a hundred some years ago. Thomas Edison also invented the electric chair and showed off its power by electrocuting Elephants at State fairs.

Edison’s true success, like that of his friend Henry Ford, was in his ability to maximize profits through establishment of mass-production systems and intellectual property rights. George Westinghouse and Edison became adversaries because of Edison’s promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution instead of the more easily transmitted alternating current (AC) system promoted by Westinghouse. Unlike DC, AC could be stepped up to very high voltages with transformers, sent over thinner and cheaper wires, and stepped down again at the destination for distribution to users.

In 1887, there were 121 Edison power stations in the United States delivering DC electricity to customers. When the limitations of DC were discussed by the public, Edison launched a propaganda campaign to convince people that AC was far too dangerous to use. The problem with DC was that the power plants could economically deliver DC electricity only to customers within about one and a half miles (about 2.4 km) from the generating station, so that it was suitable only for central business districts. When George Westinghouse suggested using high-voltage AC instead, as it could carry electricity hundreds of miles with marginal loss of power, Edison waged a “War of Currents” to prevent AC from being adopted.

The war against AC led him to become involved in the development and promotion of the electric chair (using AC) as an attempt to portray AC to have greater lethal potential than DC. Edison went on to carry out a brief but intense campaign to ban the use of AC or to limit the allowable voltage for safety purposes. As part of this campaign, Edison’s employees publicly electrocuted stray or unwanted animals to demonstrate the dangers of AC;^[65][66] alternating electric currents are slightly more dangerous in that frequencies near 60 Hz have a markedly greater potential for inducing fatal “cardiac fibrillation” than do direct currents.^[67] On one of the more notable occasions, in 1903, Edison’s workers electrocuted Topsy the elephant at Luna Park, near Coney Island, after she had killed several men and her owners wanted her put to death.^[68] His company filmed the electrocution.

AC replaced DC in most instances of generation and power distribution, enormously extending the range and improving the efficiency of power distribution. Though widespread use of DC ultimately lost favor for distribution, it exists today primarily in long-distance high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems. Low-voltage DC distribution continued to be used in high-density downtown areas for many years but was eventually replaced by AC low-voltage network distribution in many of them.^[69]

DC had the advantage that large battery banks could maintain continuous power through brief interruptions of the electric supply from generators and the transmission system. Utilities such as Commonwealth Edison in Chicago had rotary converters or motor-generator sets, which could change DC to AC and AC to various frequencies in the early to mid-20th century. Utilities supplied rectifiers to convert the low voltage AC to DC for such DC loads as elevators, fans and pumps. There were still 1,600 DC customers in downtown New York City as of 2005, and service was finally discontinued only on November 14, 2007.^[69] Most subway systems are still powered by direct current. source wikipedia

Merritt has recently become part of the charging station grid in BC that includes about 500 stations. : http://www.teslamotors.com/ there is a service center for Tesla now in Vancouver at929 Robson street: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=929+Robson+Street,+Vancouver,+BC,+Canada&hl=en&sll=37.269174,-119.306607&sspn=21.5387,23.554687&oq=929+Robson+Street&hnear=929+Robson+St,+Vancouver,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6Z+2V7,+Canada&t=m&z=17

“We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.”^{[52] thomas edison}