Are Teslas any good?

[notorious]

For me it only makes sense to buy new Tesla under warranty and get rid of it before warranty expires.

Without warranty the cost to repair it will kill all savings made on petrol, mot, etc.

Just read Goran's links.

[tintin]

That'll be the standard 8 year, 100k mileage warranty on the motor and drivetrain then? Major peace of mind in my book, along with the way that they rectify any minor issues (which are rare) without quibbling - and with no passing the buck about whether it's the dealer/franchisee or NSO, or manufacturer's fault.

[notorious]

That's great to know. My current strategy is identifying a car model which was built to last (perhaps by mistake ), buying that model in used condition with expired warranty and then driving the car forever (until I smash it or until petrol is finished on planet Earth). Keeping it in good condition of course

It seems when electric cars will start seriously replacing petrol cars that strategy should change.

[Goran]

I will wait to see how well the new two-motor drive train lasts.
In theory even with the rear-wheel-drive system the solution may be easy, but too expensive, more exotic material for the gears of the simple one speed reduction gearbox. Of course a even simpler fix would be the much tougher straight-cut gears which would be ultra noisy.

I believe the real future is to throw away another archaic component, the gearbox with its oily mechanical gears and metal-on metal friction. There is a new breed of asynchronous AC motors out there that use a variable number of phases, effectively variable gearing within the motor itself.
From a stop they can use a high number of phases to have much larger starting torque, at very high speed they can simulate only 3 phases to have high rpm efficiency.
Perhaps Tesla will move onto these in the future.

For me, the whole point of a electric drive system is to not have to rely on warranty, it should last well beyond the life of any internal combustion engine.

In Yugoslavia we still use electric locomotives from the 70s with one asynchronous AC motor per axle. I don't think these locos get much maintenance, and sure now and then some do break down, but its amazing that with minimal maintenance and no investment these drive systems have lasted over 40 years. In short that's what I expect from Tesla, and any other pure electric car. Of course the battery wont last that long, but the drive system must.

[Goran]

Tesla won't say but they are almost definitely using Borg Warner's eGearDrive transmission. On some forum someone suggested they are cast gears, but that could be hearsay.

Is this a good design?

http://articles.sae.org/7953/

http://www.electric-vehiclenews.com/...t-now-has.html

A bit of history between Tesla and Borg Warner.

https://gigaom.com/2009/08/17/tesla-...sion-troubles/

[Witchfinder]

Originally Posted by The_Laird

I read an article earlier today about the concept Lexus hydrogen cell car that appeared at the Japanese motor show. It said that this was the future, not electric cars.

There are many, many problems with hydrogen fuel cells. The fuel is volatile. There's no established infrastructure. It's expensive (£53 to fill your car with hydrogen at Heathrow). It can't "burst" power in the way a battery can without using big, heavy capacitors.

Hydrogen is just a medium for transporting energy. You can fully charge a your £50,000 Tesla for a couple of quid. Filling up your slower, more expensive £53,000 Hyundai ix35 costs nearly as much as a tank of diesel.

[Witchfinder]

There are no brakes on the hype-train

http://www.nanoflowcell.com/

[Goran]

Originally Posted by Witchfinder

..It can't "burst" ...

I'm sure it can do that in a different way

"Toyota's proprietary, small, light-weight fuel cell stack and two 70 MPa high-pressure hydrogen tanks placed beneath the specially designed body"

70MPa is rouhgly 10,000Psi. sounds fine
Because in the history of hydrogen propulsion nothing bad ever happened from storing large amounts of hydrogen at high pressure.

[The_Laird]

Another interesting point of view:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...=BBD110615_BIZ

[Witchfinder]

Originally Posted by The_Laird

Another interesting point of view:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...=BBD110615_BIZ

I can't find much fault with that article. It continually surprises me that the big manufacturers haven't identified the threat or the opportunity. They behave as if the electric car will start to take off a decade from now. It started happening 3 our 4 years ago.