> 10 lbs per motor in an aircraft is huge.
That's cool but the conversation was about cars. It's a welcome but tiny improvement for cars. Even after you multiply by 2 or 4, especially because the more motors a car has the smaller they are.
> 10 lbs per motor in an aircraft is huge.
That's cool but the conversation was about cars. It's a welcome but tiny improvement for cars. Even after you multiply by 2 or 4, especially because the more motors a car has the smaller they are.
No, it's literally - by the discussion partner's own estimation[0] - cutting the motor size in half. That's not a tiny improvement, it's a half-weight reduction for the motor. It's not as big as I naively estimated from a google search, but it's still half the weight. That's the kind of thing engineers chase as a benchmark and rarely every actually achieve. It's great.
But also, I reject your attempt to reframe the discussion as strictly car focused. OP specifically mentioned flight. Which doesn't necessarily mean it was all about aircraft - the article is about cars after all. But it certainly doesn't mean that the conversation was strictly about cars, either.
[0]: I've googled this claim and I'm willing to accept it, but the only sources for it I could find were subtractive estimations from youtubers whom had pulled apart the motors. Even additional claims from forums and whatnot seemed to trace back to one of those video sources. It would be nice if Tesla would deign to discuss some specificiations themselves, but if there's an actual official source, I have yet to see it. And, for what it's worth, the motors that I've seen referenced were all for the rear motor that I understand to be the smaller motor in Teslas. Either way, I don't doubt the 70 lbs estimate is far off, so it's moot.
> But also, I reject your attempt to reframe the discussion as strictly car focused. OP specifically mentioned flight. Which doesn't necessarily mean it was all about aircraft - the article is about cars after all. But it certainly doesn't mean that the conversation was strictly about cars, either.
OP mentioned flight. But the part that got argued back and forth over the next 7 comments was about EVs. Aurornis never said a word about anything but EVs.
I would tend to agree with the other poster that a 10lb reduction, or even a 20lb reduction, is pretty insignificant when it comes to modern consumer cars.
Right on. Buy a car with a heavier motor, then.
I took this out to the shop floor yesterday and asked the guys what they could do with 10 fewer pounds in the leafs we have around, and believe me - I'm so much less excited about being vindicated in this thread, than I am about the ideas they came up with. Mostly nonsense, but there's some interesting stuff in there that I can't wait for them to try out!
I just posted this question to an executive advisory panel consisting of leaders from some of the largest car companies, and they could not stress enough how right and vindicated the other poster was, about a 10lb reduction, or even a 20lb reduction, being pretty insignificant when it comes to modern consumer cars.
I guess it's just not worth it to pay way more for a motor just because it provides a pretty-insignificant weight reduction.
lol