New Motors - 1 million mile life. Model 3 the last car you buy?

[LimoX]

There are many other parts to the car than the motors to wear out. Technically, if you take care of any car with proactive maintenance and don't wreck it, you'll be able to drive it forever too. Getting a car to a million miles takes several decades — at that point self driving, battery, charging, and all other tech will have long-obsoleted a Model 3.

Will it still work? Sure. The million-mile Benzes and BMWs still work, and their owners love to drive them, but they're novelties at best. Designing a motor to last 1,000,000 miles is more insurance that it should last 200,000+ miles in the useful and desirable life of a car.

Having driven my Model X 90d for just over 2 months and completed a little over 16,000kms (10,000miles) my 5-7 year ownership plan needs all the reassurance it can get!

Methinks a full suspension swap every 180-200k - every bush, spring, shock and wear item should keep it driving sweetly. But I am worried about the 10,000 plus Falcon door lifts it will see during the course of its working life.

 

[LimoX]

Agreed. My 17yo has suggested he buy the autonomous driving upgrade for the M3 rather than getting his licence and car. It's completely different to racing down to get our learners permit on our birthday like we did!

He'll be able to ride in the back, tapping away on some forum/social media platform to keep "connected" with his mates. No big road trip as a rite of passage for youngsters it seems.

Hang about! I'm just as bad, ignoring the good wife next to me till she falls asleep!

 

[JeffK]

Article is pure speculation. Headline even more. Nothing indicates, that Tesla now has one million mile drive unit.

Tesla had once said that it tries to develope one million mile drive unit and it has now a new drive unit. These two things don't necessary have anything together.

I'm disappointed with Electrek. This is not journalism.

This is my opinion exactly! Fred should retitle the article. The only thing we know for sure is that there are performance improvements. Nothing to do with longevity.

 

[N5329K]

How about making a Model S powertrain that can do 50'000 miles before needing replacement, and THEN let's talk about a million mile goal.

You'll need to design owners who promise to never, ever say, "Watch this."
Robin

 

[ecarfan]

While Musk has been quoted as saying that Tesla aims to make a drive train that lasts for a million miles, Electrek made a random association to that quote when writing this headline. It's also plausible that Tesla improved the performance while keeping the longevity the same. I just wanted to point this out to anyone who reads the headline and thinks that Tesla specifically stated that the new motor is also longer lasting, when they've actually provided no details.

I agree. The Electrek article headline clearly implies that Tesla has stated that their drivetrains are now designed or warranties to last one million miles. That is an assumption, not a fact. In the body of the article no reference is made to what the headline says. Usually Electrek does better than that. It's as if the headline is designed to grab attention (yes I know, happens all the time but I expect better from Fred Lambert). The body text of the article is pretty reasonable, but it does not support the assertion in the headline. I posted a comment on the Electrek article page asking for clarification.

It is true that in the past Elon has said that the goal is for drivetrains to last one million miles. But Tesla has not made any statement about this latest drivetrain part number change which Electrek references, what is changed, or if there is a one million mile warranty on the drivetrain. No one outside of Tesla knows what that part number change means. It is certainly possible that it is related to the recent 0-60 time improvements. But we don't know. Tesla is constantly making changes and improvement to their vehicles that we never know about. Someone happened to find out about this part number change. Great. But we don't know what it signifies.

 

[zenmaster]

Agreed, but I think that using the wording "FSD" with AP 2.0 is going to cause issues for them down the road. I believe they can achieve significant Autopilot abilities with this setup but it will have limitations.

I don't see how they can avoid a more explicit qualification of actual FSD capability. Right now, AP release notes implicitly define what it means. However, I think people will forgive the misnomer while a more capable alternative from the competition (or negative press) doesn't exist.

One could imagine upgraded hardware being required to provide certain FSD features as the competitive environment becomes more sophisticated. They could call such an upgrade "FSD 2.0" or "Really FSD, this time". Anyway, off topic.

 

[Swampgator]

Love Electrek but unfortunately they are an advocacy site with news, not a real news site. Although who is anymore?
I have pointed out inaccuracies directly to Fred in the past and heard only crickets in response. I would actually love to see an EV news site that is not a green advocacy site. I may need to create this myself as I do not see anyone else out there. I am grateful for Electrek, Inside EVs, etc, but they are more about pushing their agenda than they are about objective news and critical thinking.

 

[tsla007]

As for me-yes I see my teslas going a long way. How long depends on new Tesla price vs new stats. I won't look at any other car manu ever again. I'm with Tesla forever. Why-they are the first company to really care-fight-invest-do whatever is necessary to change the auto market to EV. All the others are just wussies. I'll never buy another car brand again-EVER! I won't even look at a dealership unless it has Tesla. I do nearly all my shopping online-just like with my cars-only exception was the model 3-actually had to drive 289 miles to Boston to order it.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Article is pure speculation. Headline even more. Nothing indicates, that Tesla now has one million mile drive unit.

Tesla had once said that it tries to develope one million mile drive unit and it has now a new drive unit. These two things don't necessary have anything together.

I'm disappointed with Electrek. This is not journalism.

I don't read Electek for its journalistic professionalism. For goodness sake the contributors are like people in this forum.

I read it to get news I might have missed.

 

[deonb]

You'll need to design owners who promise to never, ever say, "Watch this."
Robin

True, but if you can't say "Watch this" and have it last, does your car really have the performance you paid for?

 

[Shas-O]

Last car I buy....will probably take the rest of my life to pay it off

 

[omgwtfbyobbq]

Motor durability is a cakewalk compared to battery pack longevity. With that said, I'm hoping the pack in the 3 will last for at least a decade and a couple hundred thousand miles without replacement.

 

[R.S]

Love Electrek but unfortunately they are an advocacy site with news, not a real news site. Although who is anymore?
I have pointed out inaccuracies directly to Fred in the past and heard only crickets in response. I would actually love to see an EV news site that is not a green advocacy site. I may need to create this myself as I do not see anyone else out there. I am grateful for Electrek, Inside EVs, etc, but they are more about pushing their agenda than they are about objective news and critical thinking.

Electrek and insideevs are my usual source of EV news and they do a good job, but they are definately biased towards EVs in general and electrek especially towards Tesla.

I once argued with Fred that the Bolt couldn't possibly cost GM 9k more in parts and labor, than they sell it for. One of my comments, where I made all my points, is blocked for months now...

But the readers like it that way, comment section is usually full of Tesla worship, which isn't necessarily bad, but it explains why headlines like this one exist.

 

[3mp_kwh]

I'm disappointed with Electrek. This is not journalism.

Somebody needs to get that through Elon Musk. He retweets from his own vacuum. I often don't care for Elctrek, Teslarti, or Evannex articles. A lot of what people will be looking for will be simple things that can't be dressed up, like the KW rating of Model 3's motor?