ajdelange
Well-known member
- First Name
- A. J.
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2019
- Threads
- 4
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- 3,213
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- 3,403
- Location
- Virginia/Quebec
- Vehicles
- Tesla X LR+, Lexus SUV, Toyota SR5, Toyota Landcruiser
- Occupation
- EE (Retired)
As did many I ordered the TriMotor to get the 500 mi range more than anything. So why the third motor? An obvious answer is marketing appeal (mine is bigger than yours) but there must be some engineering justification too. The obvious engineering answer is more torque vectoring possibilities and that may be the answer but I suspect it may have to do with towing. Energy consumptions of 1500 or even 2000 Wh/mi while towing a heavy trailer up hill are not inconceivable. That means power of 120 kW going to the drive train at 60 mpH. That's a lot of power and even at 90% efficiency implies 12 kW waste heat to dispose of. It's clearly easier to remove 4 kW of heat from an inverter/motor set than 12 kW so I think that may be the reason. Such high power also, or course, means high torque on the motors implying high stresses on shafts, gears etc. Thus I think spreading that load over three motors may have something to do with it too,
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