What is Tesla Motors' biggest flaw/challenge?

[Chickenlittle]

That's my point, they think EV's don't have enough range, so it's an issue.

Getting better though. Will go from Virginia to Urbana, Illinois to get son from college next month. Could not use tesla at beginning of school year to take him but can pick him up now using superchargers. Will drive extra hundred miles each way to do that. Next year will not have to go out of my way to do that with extra planned chargers. Using mapquest site I will save over 900 dollars in gas for this trip alone which compensates for the extra travel this trip, next year pure gravy.

 

[Matias]

More FUD why would you pay for new battery every 5 years. Warrantee is 8 years?

Just a remainder:

"loss of battery energy or power over time or due to or resulting from battery usage, is NOT covered under warranty" (capital letters in original source)

source: http://www.teslamotors.com/sites/de...roadside_assistance_safety_and_warranty_0.pdf

page 34

 

[Reykjavik]

I think Tesla's biggest flaw is time. They predict that they will have something out in 3-4 years, and it takes 5. It has gotten a bit better I think, the issue damn near killed the company with the roadster (among other factors of course), but the Model X is a year later than initially projected too. If this trend sticks around, it isn't a good thing.

Tesla's biggest challenge is probably the actual difficulty of scaling production up from 20k/year to 200k/year. That extra zero in there makes a big difference. Vested interests such as dealerships will continue to fight the change, ignorant ideologues will spread FUD, but I don't think that will stop EVs from taking over. If Tesla can deliver a quality car for the price range promised, within the time frame promised, the ideologues will be ignored and the vested interests will adapt. If Tesla can't do it, it is a serious problem.

 

[Chickenlittle]

Just a remainder:

"loss of battery energy or power over time or due to or resulting from battery usage, is NOT covered under warranty" (capital letters in original source)

source: http://www.teslamotors.com/sites/de...roadside_assistance_safety_and_warranty_0.pdf

page 34

like i said more FUD. you are claiming with a loss of less than 19% range you would replace battery since more than that would qualify for replacement. that 30% loss over 8 years is a gross over estimate. see roadster batteries which are doing better. myself after 16K and over a year have lost 2 miles on range. that is less than 0.7%. do you think i need a replacement yet?

 

[JohnQ]

You're one data point. I'm max charging to 250 miles rated (was over 270 rated on delivery) after 12 months and 17k miles. If it stabilizes I'm not worried but I can't pretend it doesn't give me some concern right now.

 

[Matias]

you are claiming with a loss of less than 19% range you would replace battery since more than that would qualify for replacement.?

(bolded by me)

I'm not saying that's not true, but when has Tesla given official statement, which loss of capacity is normal and which is not? I'm not an expert, but to my knowledge, Tesla has not given any such numbers.

 

[JRP3]

Here is another data point.

 

[tslas]

Here is another data point.

View attachment 47753

Am I reading this screen right? You already drove, 75,188 miles and You still have 246 Rated range left :love:

 

[Kitt]

@JRP3 : Which battery pack is that? CAp loss? Interesting data.....

 

[NigelM]

Am I reading this screen right? You already drove, 75,188 miles and You still have 246 Rated range left :love:

Story here - TMC - A-Model-S-owner-hit-75-000-miles-still-gets-93-of-original-range and original post on TM Forum

- - - Updated - - -

Which battery pack is that?

Pretty obviously an 85kWh battery pack.

 

[JRP3]

To avoid any confusion, that's not my car, I just posted the picture.

 

[Kitt]

Another flaw. You cant feed current back into your house net. :scared:
Say if i charged my battery with solar power i would want to use my own power.

It would be very convenient in general to have a 230V socket in the car to use a hair dryer, drill, coffe machine. IN vacations or for whatever.

 

[Chickenlittle]

Another flaw. You cant feed current back into your house net. :scared:
Say if i charged my battery with solar power i would want to use my own power.

Not a flaw at all. I recommended that possibility about 18 months ago to tesla and got back an e mail from Blankenship. He said they had no intention of providing that. I can only imagine the liability they would take on for that service. Saying its a flaw is like claiming that the inability of the car to fly is a flaw too. There is no defect it's just a capability they do not want to develop. In my opinion for good reason

 

[Kitt]

Not a flaw at all. I recommended that possibility about 18 months ago to tesla and got back an e mail from Blankenship. He said they had no intention of providing that. I can only imagine the liability they would take on for that service. Saying its a flaw is like claiming that the inability of the car to fly is a flaw too. There is no defect it's just a capability they do not want to develop. In my opinion for good reason

ok.,ok., my understanding of the word flaw was a bit blurry. Maybe pluggin a DC/AC 1200W voltage converter to 12V outlet would be the alternative.

 

[wcalvin]

The major design flaw is the one they fixed in March: they had let the battery be the low point of the undercarriage, a stepdown of about an inch or so from the frame just forward of it. That was a major failure of imagination, now corrected.

Now they have ramped up to the leading edge of the battery with that titanium plate (2), as well as installed the rounded aluminum trip bar (1) even further forward to trip trailer hitches before they can be tripped by the battery leading edge.

Except for the bounce bar (3) at the battery leading edge, you cannot see the improvements because they are beneath the aerodynamic shield that flexes.

 

[Nubo]

Tesla's eventual challenge is that batteries become SO capable, robust, and cheap, that it becomes a no-brainer for any manufacturer to bolt-up battery packs and produce electric cars. This would negate Tesla's current expertise in constructing viable systems from difficult components.

 

[ggr]

Tesla's eventual challenge is that batteries become SO capable, robust, and cheap, that it becomes a no-brainer for any manufacturer to bolt-up battery packs and produce electric cars. This would negate Tesla's current expertise in constructing viable systems from difficult components.

... and when the flying pigs get really cheap, we could harness them and have our flying cars too!

Seriously, as Tesla has shown to the others, there is a lot more to being a good electric car than putting in batteries, no matter how good the batteries are.

 

[Matias]

Does that bar number 3 block the battery? I mean does it make automatic swapping more difficult?

 

[JRP3]

I think it is attached to the pack and would come out with it.

 

[Nubo]

... and when the flying pigs get really cheap, we could harness them and have our flying cars too!

Seriously, as Tesla has shown to the others, there is a lot more to being a good electric car than putting in batteries, no matter how good the batteries are.

With current state of the art, you need considerable wizardry to construct a robust and viable electric drivetrain with the range of Tesla. But what happens when batteries are available that don't need complex cooling systems, that don't need various thermal runaway protections, complex BMS, cell-balancing, etc. etc.. That's most of the secret sauce. Inverters, chargers, reduction gearbox and AC motors are already being done capably by others and are not far removed from becoming "commodity components". They are already being used by DIY builders. They're already far "easier" than constructing a car with gasoline motors, emissions controls, engine management, miles of vacuum hoses, automatic transmissions, etc... If the batteries weren't problematic, every carmaker would be making EVs en-masse right now.

The only nut nobody else has cracked is getting 85kWH in a pack small and light and safe enough, well-controlled and well-behaved enough to make a good and reliable car. The rest of car manufacture is something the big makers have been refining for many decades and to quote The Matrix, they "have become exceedingly efficient at it".