DCN August 2017 | Page 24

Cooling Liquid Lunch Get up to speed on the benefits of liquid cooling with the help of Timothy Arnold, colo technology director at Six Degrees Group. I t’s not that long ago the names Tesla and Leaf would have meant absolutely nothing to most people. Although it was acknowledged the major car manufacturers had been looking at electric car technology for years, there was also a belief they had no real incentive to introduce it. In the end, it took the success of the hybrid Toyota Prius and the arrival of Tesla to shake them out 24 | August 2017 of their torpor. And yet, electric cars are nothing new. In the early part of the 20th century, electric cars outsold all other types of cars in the US, reaching their sales apex in 1912. Back in the 21st century, Tesla grabbed the headlines and the limelight, while Nissan set about grabbing sales with the more budget-friendly Leaf, introduced in 2010, which has now sold over 250,000 units worldwide. Overcoming inertia The significant story here is that while many car makers recognised the problems mounting over petrol and diesel powered cars, such as the price of fuel, the decline in oil reserves and the environmental damage caused by increasing car use, Nissan and Tesla were the first to offer a practical solution to those issues. It may have appeared an outlandish prospect at first,