RWD vs AWD

[brianman]

I have a P100D on it with the 21”staggered wheels. I can’t tell you how amazed I am with the tire wear. I have the original Michelin Pilot Super Sports at 25k miles. I just had it in for service and they are telling me that I still have a good deal of tread left. If I can get that kind of tread life from low profile performance tires, not driving very mellow, with as much torque as this car has. I can’t imagine what you can get with all season tires in a more standard AWD. I am very please after all the reported premature wear from initial year Model Ses.

Heh. Mine don't last anything like that (summer or all-season.

 

[Eddyrelik]

The difficult steering (i.e., the effort required to steer) on the Suburus has nothing to do with AWD. Starting with the 2017 Impreza, 2018 Crosstek, and [upcoming] 2019 Forester, Suburu revamped their steering so that steering effort is comparable to other modern cars. The Outback will see the same change in the 2020 model year.

I see. I believe my sisters is a 2017 Subaru WRX and i noticed it.

I did see a post on the Tesla forums saying that they drove both (had RWD model S and rented AWD Model S) and noticed that after a turn when you could normally let off the steering wheel and it would spin back to straight on its own, that with AWD you had to help steer it back to straight. Any confirmation of this?

 

[Candleflame]

i guess the main selling point of the AWD will be the better regen and the extended range via torque sleep. the question is. how much?
Rumour has it that for the 3 torque sleep wont be anywhere near as effective as with the S.

 

[OBX John]

Has anyone noticed on other Teslas if there is a "tougher" steering wheel and/or torque steer with AWD?

I noticed on my sisters Subaru AWD that the steering is harder significantly that a RWD car. Felt like it can get tiring on a long drive compared to a super easy to turn steering wheel (not sure if this is for all RWD cars but most).

Yes, we have both a RWD and AWD Model Ss, and the handling is better on the RWD - the AWD feels heavier, and does torque steer.

 

[grovny]

i guess the main selling point of the AWD will be the better regen and the extended range via torque sleep. the question is. how much?
Rumour has it that for the 3 torque sleep wont be anywhere near as effective as with the S.

Torque sleep works for an induction motor but not as well (or at all?) with a permanent magnet motor.
Both motors in a Dual Motor Model S are induction motors. Only the front one in a Model 3 is induction, the rear is a switched reluctance permanent magnet. That's why torque sleep will not be as effective in the 3 as in the S, and there's some opinion out there that the dual motor Model 3 will actually be a little less efficient than a RWD.

 

[SoCalGuy]

I read somewhere that Elon tweeted redundancy is one key benefit, he said something to the effect of if one motor dies you'll be able to continue driving using the other motor. At first I thought that was a pretty neat feature but as I started to think about it, won't that cause permanent damage to the other motor (as we've learned when towing/having to use time-limited tow mode)?

 

[Thomas Edison]

I read somewhere that Elon tweeted redundancy is one key benefit, he said something to the effect of if one motor dies you'll be able to continue driving using the other motor. At first I thought that was a pretty neat feature but as I started to think about it, won't that cause permanent damage to the other motor (as we've learned when towing/having to use time-limited tow mode)?

Plus the fact that with the cars that I've seen where there was a problem with one of the motors the car won't let you drive at all.

 

[grovny]

Hoping that since Elon tweeted that benefit (seems like it was mentioned on the Configuration page as well) that there's a way to disengage the failed motor.

I also hope they just never fail.