My 12 yr old son asked me this question today.
How far can a Tesla Model S travel on one fresh AA battery?
I really have no idea how to answer this, so I tried a back-of-the-envelope calculation. The AA power output varies by brand, but a reasonable figure seems to be about 2.4 W/h (based on a 1.5V to 0.9V voltage drop and 2 amps/h over that time; it's roughly linear so we don't need calculus). An 85D gets (supposedly) 270 mi of range from a full 85 kW/h charge. So the 85D battery is the equivalent of about 35,417 AA batteries and the range per AA is about
(270*5280)/(35417) = 40.25 ft.
That's more than I would have expected, honestly. And the batteries used in a real Model S are better than the average AA alkaline cell you buy at the store.
Of course one AA could not move a Model S from a stop... the power needed to overcome the inertia is going to be more than a small battery could provide, but it could (theoretically) move an already-rolling Model S for 40 feet. Theoretically.
Ok, electric car experts... did I do it right?
How far can a Tesla Model S travel on one fresh AA battery?
I really have no idea how to answer this, so I tried a back-of-the-envelope calculation. The AA power output varies by brand, but a reasonable figure seems to be about 2.4 W/h (based on a 1.5V to 0.9V voltage drop and 2 amps/h over that time; it's roughly linear so we don't need calculus). An 85D gets (supposedly) 270 mi of range from a full 85 kW/h charge. So the 85D battery is the equivalent of about 35,417 AA batteries and the range per AA is about
(270*5280)/(35417) = 40.25 ft.
That's more than I would have expected, honestly. And the batteries used in a real Model S are better than the average AA alkaline cell you buy at the store.
Of course one AA could not move a Model S from a stop... the power needed to overcome the inertia is going to be more than a small battery could provide, but it could (theoretically) move an already-rolling Model S for 40 feet. Theoretically.
Ok, electric car experts... did I do it right?