The average semi drives 45,000 miles 72,400 km in one year It can get 6 5 miles 10 5 km per gallon of HISTORY OF TESLA Tesla was founded in 2003 by five people including Elon Musk They named the company after the inventor Nikola Tesla Tesla made important discoveries in the field of electricity in the late 1800s and early 1900s The founders wanted to create electric vehicles that could match or beat gas-powered cars Tesla debuted its first car in 2008 The first model could travel 245 miles 394 km on a single charge Its top speed was 125 miles per hour 200 km h This range and speed were similar to a gas-powered car Since then Tesla has created more models of electric vehicles that are similar to gas-powered cars fuel That means a truck will use almost 7,000 gallons of fuel in one year But the Tesla Semi is an electric vehicle It can go 500 miles 800 km on a single charge Electric vehicles use a battery to power an electric motor They don’t run on fossil fuels They also don’t pollute the air Musk had another surprise The semi took a final lap around the airplane hangar
Lights turned off Rock music played Smoke filled the air A ramp dropped from the back of the semi Inside the truck headlights blinked on Lights slowly lit up the stage A sleek red car rolled down the ramp It drove across the stage The new Tesla Roadster had arrived The Tesla Roadster is a sporty convertible It has a glass top It can go from 0 to 60 mph 0 to 96 km h in just 1 9 seconds The Roadster can go over 250 mph 400 km h Like the Tesla Semi it is an electric vehicle From semis to sports cars electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular But electric vehicles are not a new development They have been around since the beginning of the automobile age THE FIRST ELECTRIC CARS William Morrison invented the first successful electric car in 1890 in Des Moines Iowa Other early cars were powered by gasoline or steam But electric cars were the most popular They were quiet and easy to fix
Then Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908 It ran on gasoline It became popular for many reasons The Model T was cheaper than an electric car It was 650 An electric car was 1,750 In 2018 this would be the difference between 17,000 and 45,000 Additionally gasoline was cheap and available because of oil wells in Texas Roads began to connect cities People traveled more They needed to refuel Filling stations with gasoline began to spread But electricity POPULAR ELECTRIC CARS There are many types of electric cars available Three popular types are the Nissan Leaf the Chevy Bolt and the Tesla Model S The Nissan Leaf costs approximately 30,000 But it can only travel approximately 150 miles 240 km on a single charge The Chevy Bolt is more expensive It costs approximately 40,000 It has a range of about 240 miles 380 km The Tesla Model S is the most expensive electric car It costs approximately 70,000 However it also has the longest range It can go about 335 miles 540 km on a single charge
The Model T was produced from 1908 to 1927 was rare in rural parts of the country By 1935 electric vehicles had died out People became interested in electric cars again in the 1970s There were gasoline shortages in the United States A group of countries in the Middle East stopped sending oil to the United States They did this for political reasons This made gasoline hard to get It was also very expensive People had to use less gasoline This inspired people to look into electric cars again As a result Congress passed the Electric and Hybrid
