EV (electric vehicle) News and Discussion

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#3245732 7-Jun-2024 14:16

robjg63:

If you look at some of the videos on youtube where Teslas are pulled apart (I am thinking Sandy Munro particularly), they marvel at how there is a constant update and improvement of parts and engineering. His comments about how fast they can go from engineering to production are very interesting. You would just have to see how the original MY has changed over time.

Gawd knows what that does to the parts requirement at the service centres thou.....

At least with a "model" system you tended to have the parts fixed, until a model refresh came around,

Under a Continual update model, you might end up with multiple versions of a replacement part, unless you can ensure that the newest part version is a plug and play replacement for earlier versions - snd if they did that it would be an impressive feat...

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#3245737 7-Jun-2024 14:39

wellygary:

robjg63:

If you look at some of the videos on youtube where Teslas are pulled apart (I am thinking Sandy Munro particularly), they marvel at how there is a constant update and improvement of parts and engineering. His comments about how fast they can go from engineering to production are very interesting. You would just have to see how the original MY has changed over time.

Gawd knows what that does to the parts requirement at the service centres thou.....

At least with a "model" system you tended to have the parts fixed, until a model refresh came around,

Under a Continual update model, you might end up with multiple versions of a replacement part, unless you can ensure that the newest part version is a plug and play replacement for earlier versions - snd if they did that it would be an impressive feat...

You would be right on some things - like switching to Giga casting are major.

But many of the changes were backwards compatible. Things like redesign of door handle assemblies. Fits in the same place but the way the mechanism works had been completely changed to use let parts and increase reliablity. There was one piece of ducting under the frunk that they found had gone through about 10 revisions. It still fitted in the same spot, but had been strengthened and shape modified a little to aid quicker fitting on the assembly line. The couple of videos I watched mainly focused on the constant improvements on 'modules' that were generally backwards compatible.

This video is actually really interesting where they look at changes that have been made to a Model Y over a year or so and they talk (among other things) how when the giga castings were introduced, they made sure that it didnt need different body panels. The castings brackets mated up where the fender panels fasteners fitted on the non giga-casting models.

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Scott3

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#3245738 7-Jun-2024 14:50

I don't really buy into the need for all new models every 8 - 10 years.

I suspect many brands just do the 4 year refresh & 8 year all new model to try and encourage their existing customers to upgrade. In many cases it is more fashion than function.

As long as the underlying car has what buyers are looking for, and you keep things like infotainment, powertrain etc modern, there is little reason a car can't have a long life. Examples like the 70 series Landcruiser (1984-present) and 6th gen Mitsubishi Mirage (2012 - present) are examples of cars which with repeated facelifts have survived well beyond the typical cycle.

For the tesla model 3 & Y there is nothing wrong with the underlying form factor, so as long as tesla remain completive with competitors via things like price cuts, range increases etc, no reason to see the pressing need for a new model.

wellygary:

Gawd knows what that does to the parts requirement at the service centres thou.....

At least with a "model" system you tended to have the parts fixed, until a model refresh came around,

Under a Continual update model, you might end up with multiple versions of a replacement part, unless you can ensure that the newest part version is a plug and play replacement for earlier versions - snd if they did that it would be an impressive feat...

At a branded service center it is unlikely to be a big issue.

The brand will hold a list of the parts of every car, so when one comes in with say a broken power steering booster pump, it should be a simple matter to look up and see that car has a version 2 power steering booster pump, and that version 2,3 or 7 are the acceptable replacements.

But man does it make it more complex for DIY and third party repairers who don't have access to that data.

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#3245749 7-Jun-2024 15:06

Ge0rge: Honda Prelude had electric rear power steer in the 1990s, again for a fraction of the cost.

1980s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Prelude#Third_generation_(1987)

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#3254599 30-Jun-2024 10:16

Ford CEO Jim Farley about EVs and the future of cars. Quite an interesting interview

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PJ48

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#3255729 2-Jul-2024 22:28

Looking for advice about EV efficiency during winter.

We have an MG 4 Excite 51. Bought in Sept last year and has been averaging 17 kWh/100 km for the last 8500 km. In the last few weeks it has suddenly jumped up to average around 21 kWh/100 km for the current driving patterns. We do a lot of very short trips, and when starting out it will sit at 29.8 kWh/100 km for the first 2- 3 km then slowly drop.

Is this to do with the ambient temperature (currently varying 3 - 13 degrees) or is this more than should be expected?

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HarmLessSolutions

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#3255730 2-Jul-2024 22:33

PJ48:

Looking for advice about EV efficiency during winter.

We have an MG 4 Excite 51. Bought in Sept last year and has been averaging 17 kW/100 km for the last 8500 km. In the last few weeks it has suddenly jumped up to average around 21 kW/100 km for the current driving patterns. We do a lot of very short trips, and when starting out it will sit at 29.8 kW/100 km for the first 2- 3 km then slowly drop.

Is this to do with the ambient temperature (currently varying 3 - 13 degrees) or is this more than should be expected?

Sorry to be that guy but you're meaning kWh not kW. kWs are units of power (output) whereas kWh are units of energy (or battery capacity).

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#3255786 3-Jul-2024 05:24

my leafs' efficiency has dropped slightly last month

It went from .86% to .82%, kWh power supplied by the charger vs kWh/km driven

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#3255799 3-Jul-2024 08:22

My Tesla 3 goes from the normal 127Wh/km up to 140-145 in the cold. That's when driving and I am also using more when I warm up the car before leaving. Normally I am using 5% each way to and from work including the warm up time and it's 7 most days with some 8s. Also considerably more cases of reduced Regen even when down in the 70% full area of the battery.

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#3255817 3-Jul-2024 09:20

Yep, my MG4 is noticeably less efficient in the cold (0-6 degrees).

A couple of times a week I drive Paeroa to Auckland and back for work. I leave home at about 0445. It can be cold (and foggy) in the Waikato at that time.

I get about 18 kWh/100km between home and the Bombays, by the time I get to work out near the Airport, the avg for the trip has dropped to about 14.5 to 15. By the time I get home at 5pm, my trip average is usually about 14kWh/100km. On a cold day, it could easily be 19kWh/100km between home and the Bombays.

Saturday just gone, we drove over to Hamilton at about lunchtime and came home around midnight. Hamilton was coated in fog that night and it was cold (about 5 degrees). The efficiency for that trip was hideous - the Guess-O-Meter suggested I would have got about 285km for my 90% charge. I usually get about 390 for a 90% charge. I did have 4 people in the car, and it was cold/foggy so also had the aircon running (which takes ~5%).

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#3255820 3-Jul-2024 09:25

Also tyre pressure will be lower in the cold until they warm up, and colder rubber has more rolling resistance, so you might want to put a little more air in them if you have not done it recently. I am getting the warning come up because I am down to 2.7bar in the morning, it quickly goes up to 2.8 when I drive, but I would have had them at 3.1 when it was warmer weather.

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#3255982 3-Jul-2024 13:28

PJ48: We do a lot of very short trips, and when starting out it will sit at 29.8 kWh/100 km for the first 2- 3 km then slowly drop.

This is totally consistent with my own experience with our EVs - most of my trips within the city are short, and reported efficiency in both cars (an MG4 51 and a MY) is always pretty poor for the first few minutes. This is definitely much more noticeable in winter thanks to running the heater and a cold battery. Personally, I use that a challenge to see how efficiently I can drive!

Are you pre-heating the car before driving? I’m not sure if the energy used for this is counted by the MG towards the trip’s overall power usage, or if it is only from the point of setting off. I’m assuming the former?

PJ48

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#3256117 3-Jul-2024 22:03

jonathan18:
PJ48: We do a lot of very short trips, and when starting out it will sit at 29.8 kWh/100 km for the first 2- 3 km then slowly drop.

This is totally consistent with my own experience with our EVs - most of my trips within the city are short, and reported efficiency in both cars (an MG4 51 and a MY) is always pretty poor for the first few minutes. This is definitely much more noticeable in winter thanks to running the heater and a cold battery. Personally, I use that a challenge to see how efficiently I can drive!

Are you pre-heating the car before driving? I’m not sure if the energy used for this is counted by the MG towards the trip’s overall power usage, or if it is only from the point of setting off. I’m assuming the former?

Thanks Jonathan (and everyone else!)

That has allayed my fears. How do I preheat the MG - do you mean the battery? - I didn't know I could do that.

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#3256119 3-Jul-2024 22:16

PJ48:

That has allayed my fears. How do I preheat the MG - do you mean the battery? - I didn't know I could do that.

No, I mean the interior so I'm not walking out of the house/work and getting into a cold car. Tesla app lets you do it easy enough. No idea on the MG but I would assume so. In the process of waking up it seems to help with the battery heat as I get less frequent warnings on the regen reduction when I first leave if I have the car nice and toasty inside it. The car probably warms up a lot quicker than I leave it heating for.

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#3256130 3-Jul-2024 23:17

With a Tesla, when you precondition the cabin from the app it will also heat the battery if it needs to. You can see this in the app as it will have a heat symbol next to battery meter, and if you’re near the car you’ll hear the motor making a high pitched noise (if you can hear those sounds) as it uses that to create heat - at least in the older non-heat pump cars, the newer ones might just use the heat pump for that instead.

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