Munro Live Teardown Model S Plaid motors - Future Cybertruck motor?

[firsttruck]

Tesla Model S Plaid Motor EXTRAVAGANZA!!
Sandy and Ben discuss all the highlights and surprises that the Plaid motor has to offer. Stay tuned at the end for rotor magnet testing.
Feb 25, 2022
Munro Live

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[JBee]

So it looks like Sandy is saying that it is only an upgraded rotor for the Model 3/Y stator and inverter?

If that is the case, it's really only a change of laminate design, magnets, the CF wrap and some electronic component tweaks on the inverter that are required to make the plaid motor version. That's unlikely to amount to a significant cost increase of the motor, probably the only price sensitive thing is the magnets.

That means we are definitely going to get plaid motors in the CT, at a bare minimum in the quad motor plaid performance version.

I also found the motor castings interesting, in that they also directly fit the stator in there that then becomes irremovable, and the fact the inverter has the same footprint as the other models, although technically this does not mean the inverter electronics are all the same. The actual power circuit is hiding behind the control electronics and has it's own cooling circuit tubes on the back of the casted lid (see 3:24). PCB's are a dime a dozen so easy enough to change around.

So even here it really looks like Tesla is heading towards a drivetrain singularity, potentially across all upcoming models, where performance is only restricted by the battery performance and software settings, and not by the physics of the motor, inverter or mechanical components.

 

[Hunter]

I suspect that the rare earth elements needed to create the much stronger super-magnets are quite expensive, and this is the reason they are not in all of the motors.

 

[Crissa]

I suspect that the rare earth elements needed to create the much stronger super-magnets are quite expensive, and this is the reason they are not in all of the motors.

No, rare-earth magnets not actually all that rare. More materials is more expensive, yes, but not by a huge amount.

They're also less efficient and are more sensitive to heat. Mostly, they provide more torque for power rather than range for power.

-Crissa

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