Tesla is in the process of upgrading the motors in their electric vehicles. CEO Elon Musk has recently said that the company is in the process of making the powertrains for their vehicles last for more than 1 million miles.
Tesla has made several improvements to their engines to try and achieve this lofty goal, including upgrading the battery pack, electric motors and inverters. Tesla will also be adding upgrades to its drive units for the Model S and Model X, according to a recent announcement.
Tesla creates three different electric motors: a primary rear-wheel-drive motor, a front-wheel-drive motor which is smaller and used in the dual motor variants of the Model X and Model S, and finally a larger “performance version” of the real-wheel-drive motor.
The company has recently changed the part numbers for its main rear-wheel-drive motor, following a revision of the performance specs over the weekend. All versions of the Model S or Model X that the revision impacts will be equipped with the new motor. However, the Model S P100D and Model X P100D have not been granted any performance enhancements. These revelations suggest the company is planning a significant update for the future, to coincide with the faster 0 to 60 mph acceleration they have recently enabled.
The drive units Tesla manufactures are created with a patented assembly process. The process includes placing the electric motor, gearbox and power inverter assembly into a single enclosure. The exact details of the production process are unknown, but the company could be transferring some of the upgrades they made through the development process of the drive unit to the motors of the Model X and Model S.
We won’t know for sure what upgrades Tesla has planned for the Model 3 until they announce it, but it looks likely that the company is also upgrading the already high-performance of the Model S to make it stand out more from the Model X.
