Tesla Motors’ CTO talks about the roadster & batteries

JB Straubel, the CTO of Tesla Motors, gave a talk to a packed Stanford CarLab forum a few days ago. Some of the interesting tidbits from his presentation:

• the battery pack in a Tesla roadster costs around $25,000
• battery technology is improving at 8% per year in terms of gravimetric or volumetric energy density
• there are approximately 12,000 fuses in the battery pack
• in terms of well-to-wheel efficiency, electric cars can currency reach 85% efficiency.
• hydrogen systems eke out 32% efficiency, through combined losses from electrolysis (70% efficient), hydrogen compression during storage (90% efficient), and fuel cells (50% efficient)
• an acre of solar cells can take a car 36x the distance than an acre of ethanol
• quoted Sheikh Yamani, a former Saudi oil minster stating “The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.”

or download the MP3 here.

Adeo Ressi talks about startup funding in Silicon Valley

Adeo Ressi, a seasoned entrepreneur and founder of theFunded.com, spoke recently to a group of students and CEOs on campus about startup fundraising in the current climate:

or download the MP3 here.