{{Notability|date=February 2020}}

{{About-distinguish|an automobile power source said to have been developed by Nikola Tesla|Tesla, Inc.{{!}}the American electric car manufacturer, Tesla, Inc.}}

The '''Nikola Tesla electric car hoax''' is an [[anecdote]] that refers to a supposed [[Nikola Tesla]] invention described by Peter Savo, who claimed to be a [[nephew]] of Tesla, to Derek Ahers in 1967. Savo said that Tesla took him to [[Buffalo, New York]] in 1931 and showed him a modified [[Pierce-Arrow]] car.

Tesla, according to the story, had removed the gasoline engine from the car and replaced it with a [[Brushless electric motor|brushless AC electric motor]]. The motor was said to have been run by a "cosmic energy power receiver" consisting of a box measuring about 25&nbsp;inches long by 10&nbsp;inches wide by 6&nbsp;inches high, containing 12 [[vacuum tube|radio vacuum tubes]] and connected to a {{convert|6|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} [[Antenna (radio)|antenna]]. The car was said to have been driven for about 50 miles at speeds of up to 90&nbsp;mph during an eight-day period.<ref>{{cite web|author=Robert Nelson |url=http://www.rexresearch.com/feg/feg2.htm#tesla|title="Information about an Invention by Dr. Nikola Tesla, which is said to have harnessed Cosmic Energy" (Unidentified document circulated in the early 1980s) |publisher=Rexresearch.com |date= |accessdate=2010-11-27}}</ref><ref>Ford, R.A., <u>Space Energy Receivers : Power from the wheelwork of nature</u>, Simplified Technology Service, Champaign, IL, 1993 "Information about an invention by Dr Nikola Tesla, which is said to have harnessed cosmic energy" pp. 31–37.</ref>

The story has received some debate because the car's propulsion system is said to have been invented by Tesla. No physical evidence has ever been produced confirming that the car actually existed.
Tesla did not have a nephew by the name of Peter Savo, and Tesla's grand-nephew William Terbo considers the Tesla electric car story to be a fabrication.

A number of web pages exist that perpetuate this tale.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mathews |first1=Arthur |title=Tesla's Last Known Living Assistant's Recorded Statement |url=https://www.nuenergy.org/arthur-mathews-about-tesla/ |website=NU Energy |publisher=NU Energy Staff |accessdate=14 July 2019 |ref=mathews |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116013246/https://www.nuenergy.org/arthur-mathews-about-tesla/ |archivedate=16 November 2018 |language=English |quote=A new, and improved, primary zinc battery capable of powering an electric vehicle for a range of 500 miles before easily and economically replacing its cathode (negative terminal) plates by the car's owner from a year's supply of fresh, new plates which could easily be stored within the trunk of the car.|date=2013-01-29 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Tesla |first1=Nikola |title=Nicola Tesla's View of the Future in Motive Power |url=https://www.nuenergy.org/teslas-letter-about-the-electric-car/ |website=NU Energy |publisher=NU Energy Staff |accessdate=14 July 2019 |ref=teslaletter |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116013117/https://www.nuenergy.org/teslas-letter-about-the-electric-car/ |archivedate=16 November 2018 |language=English |quote=Tesla states that he made numerous statements in publications in regards to using electricity to power a car. Tracking down these statements should dispel the myth that his car was powered by radiant energy.|date=2013-01-29 }}</ref> The [[Closed-loop_recycling|continuous recycling]] of [[Electrical_reactance#Comparison_to_resistance|reactive power]] is ''not'' one of them<ref>{{cite web |title=Recycling Energy |url=https://www.powersoft.com/en/about/technologies/recycling-energy/ |website=Powersoft |access-date=24 February 2022 |language=English |quote=Higher power efficiency values are reached also by converting the speaker’s reactive energy (BACK-EMF) into usable power and storing it in the condensers. This technology not only increases the efficiency of the amplifier, it also protect the loudspeaker from overheating by removing the reactive energy.}}</ref> for lack of verifiable evidence to prove otherwise.<ref>[[Wikiversity:Free_Energy_does_not_Exist|'''Free energy''']] is a colloquialism suggesting [[wikt:over-unity|getting more resultant energy exiting a device per energy expenditure which powers it]]. Yet, the mathematical concepts which promote and maintain our ''<u>rebellious belief in “Free Energy” do not exist</u>'' and ''<u>neither do the mathematical constructs of electrical reactance</u>''. Both are fictions whose theorized existence have weathered our doubts for over a century of experience among electrical engineers encompassing a belief in the practicality of imaginary numbers.</ref> Yet, if it ''were'' powered (for the most part) by the reuse of reactive power, then this would require a thorough review of these anecdotes to determine if an extremely high [[Q_factor#Stored_energy_definition|Quality Factor]] is responsible for significantly [[Extremal_principles_in_non-equilibrium_thermodynamics#Linear_and_non-linear_processes|offsetting]] power [[Damping|losses]]. Until any ''[[Incontrovertible_evidence|conclusive evidence]]'' is found, all we can do is engage in endless speculation as a form of [[Science_fiction#Sense_of_wonder|mild entertainment]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hare |first1=Alan V. |title=Free Energy |url=https://makeshiftstories.com/science-fiction-short-stories/free-energy/ |website=Makeshift Stories |access-date=24 February 2022 |language=English |quote=While tracking down a scam artist who disappeared with 200 million dollars, a freelance insurance investigator stumbles across an online video by the leader of a group called the Free Energy Coalition. She suspects the man in the video is her missing suspect and goes to a Free Energy conference to find out, but is quickly sucked into the murky world of conspiracy theories which claim the laws of thermodynamics have been faked to prevent the world from discovering perpetual motion machines which can generate free energy.}}</ref>

Aside from these exceptions, every other account of this purported demonstration automobile is based upon the ''Peter Savo story'' plus literary embellishment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.teslasociety.ch/info/doc/Teslacar.pdf |title=Tesla's Electric Car |date= |accessdate=2010-11-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://fuel-efficient-vehicles.org/tesla-flying-machine/Tesla-electric-car-1931.php |title=Tesla's Electric Car |publisher=Fuel-efficient-vehicles.org |date=2000-01-01 |accessdate=2010-11-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101113034000/http://fuel-efficient-vehicles.org/tesla-flying-machine/Tesla-electric-car-1931.php |archive-date=2010-11-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Gary Lee Armijo says |url=http://fuel-efficient-vehicles.org/energy-news/?page_id=952 |title=Tesla's Electric Car |publisher=Fuel-efficient-vehicles.org |date=2010-03-04 |accessdate=2010-11-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fevj.org/tesla-flying-machine/Tesla-electric-car-1931.php |title=Tesla's Electric Car |publisher=Fevj.org |date=2000-01-01 |accessdate=2010-11-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1062 |title=Nikola Tesla's 'Black Magic' Touring Car |publisher=Evworld.com |date= |accessdate=2010-11-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uncletaz.com/library/scimath/tesla/teslacar.html |title=The Electric Auto that almost triumphed, Power Source of '31 car still a mystery, by A.C. Greene |publisher=Vangard Sciences |date=1993-01-30 |accessdate=2014-10-12}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last=Ford |first=Richard A. |title=Space Energy Receivers. Power from the Wheelwork of Nature |year=1993 |publisher=Simplified Technology Service, Champaign, IL}}
*[http://keelynet.com/energy/teslcar.htm More Insight into the Tesla Car] {{Unreliable source?|date=March 2012}}
*[http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~panopus/essentia/essentiaii4.htm Essentia Volume 2 Winter 1981: Exemplar - Nikola Tesla] {{Unreliable source?|date=March 2012}}
*[http://www.frankgermano.net/blackbox.htm Nikola Tesla's amazing "black box"] {{Unreliable source?|date=March 2012}}
*[http://www.remnantsaints.com.net/AlternativeUtilities/TeslaTech/cold_electricity.htm Cold Electricity or Cosmic Rays of Tesla's 1931 Pierce Arrow Top Secret Project]{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} {{Unreliable source?|date=August 2009}}
*[http://www.teslatech.info/ttmagazine/v1n2/v1n2toc.htm ExtraOrdinary Technology: Volume 1 Number 2] {{Unreliable source?|date=August 2009}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20181210012332/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Motor_transformer Simulating Tesla's Pierce Arrow EV Demonstration of 1931]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20210518234346/http://www.energyfromthevacuum.com/Disc20CjekaFiles/index20.html Aluminum-Air (Primary) Battery Development - Toward an Electric Car] &ndash; [http://www.teslagenx.com/dvds/eftv_20.html?category=bedini Mirrored copy]

==External links==
* [http://www.tfcbooks.com/teslafaq/q&a_016.htm Interesting Facts About Nikola Tesla]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tesla Electric Car}}
[[Category:Electric vehicles]]
[[Category:Nikola Tesla]]
[[Category:Hoaxes in science]]
[[Category:Hoaxes in the United States]]
[[Category:1960s hoaxes]]