The Nikola Tesla electric car hoax is an anecdote that refers to a supposed Nikola Tesla invention described by a Peter Savo (who claimed to be a nephew of Tesla) to one Derek Ahers, with the date September 16, 1967. Savo said that Tesla took him to Buffalo, New York in 1931 and showed him a modified Pierce-Arrow automobile.
Tesla, according to the story, had the stock gasoline engine removed and replaced with a 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 inches long by 10 inches wide by 6 inches high, containing 12 radio vacuum tubes and connected to a 6-foot-long (1.8 m) antenna. The car was said to have been driven for about 50 miles at speeds of up to 90 mph during an eight-day period.
This 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 the tale. Every account of this purported demonstration automobile is based upon the story plus literary embellishment.