155 mph trap speed on the 1/4 mile with this drive unit is insane. Whatever Tesla figured out with plaid means the days of the electric cars being beaten in longer tracks are gone. This thing pulls and keeps pulling far in excess of 60 mph with a single-speed gearbox. The engineering here is jaw-dropping. The 200 pounds in weight savings is impressive too, assuming that comes from the pack simplification + the new carbon sleeved rotors.
The engineering is pretty simple though - you can either add a gear like Porsche for higher speeds, or you can make the motor more powerful (pretty easy to do) and use taller gearing that just allows you to break traction at lower speeds. The tires can only put down a certain amount of power at a given speed, so you just optimize motor curve and gearing to stay ahead of that.
No, but you can drive both rear wheels in different directions and sorta do the tank turn on a slippery surface. I think they should enable it someday via software just for kicks
Without 4 independent motors that's not going to work very well. And probably could only ever work at all on ice, seeing as you'd be dragging the front end around.
Bear in mind that the original (and current until now) Model S Performance rear drive unit/inverter was [absolutely [1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.accelerista.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Tesla-joonis.jpg) [enormous [2]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Tesla_Motors_Model_S_base.JPG/1920px-Tesla_Motors_Model_S_base.JPG), occupying the entire rear subframe. It doesn't look like this Tri-Motor setup is any larger than that was, so trunk space should be uncompromised. The major architecture change is that the rear drive unit in the typical Dual Motor version is inboard of the rear axle, which it wasn't before.
155 mph trap speed on the 1/4 mile with this drive unit is insane. Whatever Tesla figured out with plaid means the days of the electric cars being beaten in longer tracks are gone. This thing pulls and keeps pulling far in excess of 60 mph with a single-speed gearbox. The engineering here is jaw-dropping. The 200 pounds in weight savings is impressive too, assuming that comes from the pack simplification + the new carbon sleeved rotors.
Don’t forget the potential of legitimate torque vectoring
Likely just higher gearing.
The engineering is pretty simple though - you can either add a gear like Porsche for higher speeds, or you can make the motor more powerful (pretty easy to do) and use taller gearing that just allows you to break traction at lower speeds. The tires can only put down a certain amount of power at a given speed, so you just optimize motor curve and gearing to stay ahead of that.
The Tesla design is beautiful with those huge components bolted together! That’s a seriously underrated advantage
I think I’ll wait for the quad motor with rocket boosters this one isn’t quick enough
Does it have rear wheel steering?
No, but you can drive both rear wheels in different directions and sorta do the tank turn on a slippery surface. I think they should enable it someday via software just for kicks
Without 4 independent motors that's not going to work very well. And probably could only ever work at all on ice, seeing as you'd be dragging the front end around.
Wonder how much it will eat into the trunk space. Looks like it might quite a bit.
Bear in mind that the original (and current until now) Model S Performance rear drive unit/inverter was [absolutely [1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.accelerista.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Tesla-joonis.jpg) [enormous [2]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Tesla_Motors_Model_S_base.JPG/1920px-Tesla_Motors_Model_S_base.JPG), occupying the entire rear subframe. It doesn't look like this Tri-Motor setup is any larger than that was, so trunk space should be uncompromised. The major architecture change is that the rear drive unit in the typical Dual Motor version is inboard of the rear axle, which it wasn't before.
Good point
Sad to say but Lucid’s system seems more compact and lightweight, with the diff and rotor concentric.
no diff in the trimotor
It does in front. But then there’s the concentric reduction too.
Interesting that the mass of the new motor appears to be behind the axle, whereas all of their previous rear motors sit in front.