Unfortunately in light of the fact that Tesla did not have a nephew by the name of Peter Savo, the Tesla electric car story is considered by some to be a fabrication however, Tesla has patents on how to get electrical energy from the universe, (click on the links "Dark Energy" or "Tesla's Dark Energy system" above), and there is also C. Earl Ammann and Lester Hendershot who appear to have created 2 parallel inventions.

What is historical is Tesla's knowledge of electrical energy (now called "Dark Energy"), throughout the universe, that he could "tap" into and broadcast wirelessly across the planet.

"Electrical power is everywhere present in unlimited quantities and can drive the world's machinery without the need for coal, oil or gas..." - Nikola Tesla, 1892

---

from January 24th, Sunday - Dallas Morning News
Texas Sketches column The Electric Auto that almost triumphed
Power Source of '31 car still a mystery
by A.C. Greene

It is a mystery car once demonstrated by Nikola Tesla, developer of alternating current, that might have made electrics triumphant.

Supported by the Pierce-Arrow Co. and Westinghouse in 1931, he took the gasoline engine from a new Pierce-Arrow and replaced it with an 80-horsepower alternating-current electric motor with no external power source.

At a local radio shop he bought 12 vacuum tubes, some wires and assorted resistors, and assembled them in a circuit box 24 inches long, 12 inches wide and 6 inches high, with a pair of 3-inch rods sticking out. Getting into the car with the circuit box in the front seat beside him, he pushed the rods in, announced, "We now have power," and proceeded to test drive the car for a week, often at speeds of up to 90 mph.

As it was an alternating-current motor and there were no batteries involved, where did the power come from?

Popular responses included charges of "black magic," and the sensitive genius didn't like the skeptical comments of the press. He removed his mysterious box, returned to his laboratory in New York - and the secret of his power source died with him.

A.C. Greene is an author and Texas historian who lives in Salado.

---

In 1920, Einstein invented the idea of dark energy to explain why the Universe feels a force that counteracts gravity. His explanation was quickly abandoned as unnecessary, and subsequently ignored for 70 years. Today we know that not only was Einstein correct, dark energy does exist, but also, that it is expanding the Universe into darkness.
see dark energy

---

---

In 1931, under the financing of Pierce-Arrow and George Westinghouse, a 1931 Pierce-Arrow was selected to be tested at the factory grounds in Buffalo, N.Y. The standard internal combustion engine was removed and an 80-H.P. 1800 r.p.m electric motor installed to the clutch and transmission. The A.C. motor measured 40 inches long and 30 inches in diameter and the power leads were left standing in the air - no external power source!

At the appointed time, Nikola Tesla arrived from New York City and inspected the Pierce-Arrow automobile. He then went to a local radio store and purchased a handful of tubes (12), wires and assorted resistors. A box measuring 24 inches long, 12 inches wide and 6 inches high was assembled housing the circuit. The box was placed on the front seat and had its wires connected to the air-cooled, brushless motor. Two rods 1/4" in diameter stuck out of the box about 3" in length.

Mr. Tesla got into the driver's seat, pushed the two rods in and stated, "We now have power". He put the car into gear and it moved forward! This vehicle, powered by an A.C. motor, was driven to speeds of 90 m.p.h. and performed better than any internal combustion engine of its day! One week was spent testing the vehicle. Several newspapers in Buffalo reported this test. When asked where the power came from, Tesla replied, "From the ethers all around us". Several people suggested that Tesla was mad and somehow in league with sinister forces of the universe. He became incensed, removed his mysterious box from the vehicle and returned to his laboratory in New York City. His secret died with him!

---

---

This information comes through an unlikely source, one rarely mentioned by Tesla biographers. It chanced that an aeronautical engineer, Derek Ahlers, met with one of Tesla's nephews then living in New York. Theirs was an acquaintance lasting some 10 years, consisting largely of anecdotal commentaries on Dr. Tesla. Mr. Peter Savo provided an enormous fund of knowledge concerning many episodes in Tesla's last years.

Dr Nikola Tesla was Peter's uncle on his mother's side. It was he who suggested that Peter come to the United States. He met Peter at the boat on arrival and seems to have taken a fatherly interest in him until his death…

The Black Box

Himself an Austrian military man and a trained aviator, Mr. Savo was extremely open about certain long-cherished incidents in which his uncle's genius was consistently made manifest. Mr. Savo reported that in 1931 (just 12 years before Tesla's death), he participated in an experiment involving aetheric power. Unexpectedly, almost inappropriately, he was asked to accompany his uncle on a long train ride to Buffalo. A few times in this journey, Mr. Savo asked the nature of their journey. Dr. Tesla remained unwilling to disclose any information, speaking rather directly to this issue. Taken into a small garage, Dr. Tesla walked directly to a Pierce Arrow, opened the hood and began making a few adjustments. In place of the engine, there was an AC motor. This measured a little more than 3 feet long, and a little more than 2 feet in diameter. From it trailed two very thick cables, which connected with the dashboard. In addition, there was an ordinary 12-volt storage battery. ("There was a 12-volt Willard battery installed in the car, but it was for the lights only and much too small to run the car. In any case.") The motor was rated at 80 horsepower. Maximum rotor speed was stated to be 30 turns per second (1800 rpm). A 6-foot vertical antenna rod was fitted into the rear section of the car.

Dr. Tesla stepped into the passenger side and began making adjustments on a "power receiver" which had been built directly into the dashboard. The receiver, no larger than a short-wave radio of the day, used 12 special tubes, which Dr. Tesla brought with him in a box-like case. Mr. Savo told Mr. Ahler that Dr. Tesla built the receiver in his hotel room, a device 2 feet in length, nearly 1 foot wide, a 1/2 foot high. These curiously constructed tubes having been properly installed in their sockets, Dr. Tesla pushed in 2 contact rods and informed Mr. Savo that power was now available to drive. "There was a voltmeter which was used to measure output of the receiver. Dr Tesla commented that the receiver had enough reserve power so that you could drive the car next to a house, connect the wiring, and light up the whole house. There was also some kind of hydraulic pressure gauge on the dash. Peter asked its purpose but Dr Tesla would not tell him." No sound was heard. Dr. Tesla handed Mr. Savo the ignition key and told him to start the engine, which he promptly did. Yet hearing nothing, the accelerator was applied, and the car instantly moved. Tesla's nephew drove this vehicle without other fuel for an undetermined long interval. Mr. Savo drove a distance of 50 miles through the city and out to the surrounding countryside. The car was tested to speeds of 90 mph, with the speedometer rated to 120.

After a time, and with increasing distance from the city itself, Dr. Tesla felt free enough to speak. Having now become sufficiently impressed with the performance of both his device and the automobile. Dr. Tesla informed his nephew that the device could not only supply the needs of the car forever, but could also supply the needs of a household "with power to spare". When originally asked how the device worked, Tesla was initially adamant and refused to speak. Many who have read this "apocryphal account" have stated it to be the result of an "energy broadcast". This misinterpretation has simply caused further confusions concerning this stage of Tesla's work. He had very obviously succeeded in performing, with this small and compact device, what he had learned in Colorado and Shoreham.

As soon as they were on the country roads, clear of the more congested areas, Tesla began to lecture on the subject. Of the motive source he referred to "a mysterious radiation, which comes out of the aether". The small device very obviously and effectively appropriated this energy. Tesla also spoke very glowingly of this providence, saying of the energy itself that "it is available in limitless quantities". Dr. Tesla stated that although "he did no know where it came from, mankind should be very grateful for its presence". The two remained in Buffalo for 8 days, rigorously testing the car in the city and countryside. Dr. Tesla also told Mr. Savo that the device would soon be used to drive boats, planes, trains, and other automobiles. Once, just before leaving the city limits, they stopped at a streetlight and a bystander joyfully commented concerning their lack of exhaust fumes. Mr. Savo spoke up whimsically, saying that they had "no engine". They left Buffalo and traveled to a predetermined location, which Dr. Tesla knew, an old farmhouse barn some 20 miles from Buffalo. Dr. Tesla and Mr. Savo left the car in this barn, took the 12 tubes and the ignition key, and departed.

Later on, Mr. Savo heard a rumor that a secretary had spoken candidly about both the receiver and the test run, being promptly fired for the security breach. About a month after the incident, Mr. Savo received a call from a man who identified himself as Lee De Forest, who asked how he enjoyed the car. Mr. Savo expressed his joy over the mysterious affair, and Mr. DeForest declared Tesla the greatest living scientist in the world. Later, Mr. Savo asked his uncle whether or not the power receiver was being used in other applications. He was informed that Dr. Tesla had been negotiating with a major shipbuilding company to build a boat with a similarly outfitted engine. Asked additional questions, Dr. Tesla became annoyed. Highly concerned and personally strained over the security of this design, it seems obvious that Tesla was performing these tests in a desperate degree of secrecy for good reasons. Tesla had already been the victim of several manipulations, deadly actions entirely sourced in a single financial house. For this reason, secrecy and care had become his only recent excess.

"About 7 years ago Peter was approached by a Yugoslav diplomat then at the United Nations (Peter could not remember the name but has a record of it) who asked if he could find the engine and power receiver of that car. He dropped the name Rockefeller and said that they "could make millions" if they had this engine to copy. Peter made some attempts to comply, but without results. Peter is very anti-Tito and probably did not try very hard. The diplomat died about two years ago."

"When asked whatever happened to the car, Peter said that he had heard that it had been shipped to Yugoslavia. However, he has written to friends in Yugoslavia about this and they replied that nothing ever arrived."