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Tesla aims to make their cars last 10 times longer than the average gasoline car. There are less things that can go wrong with an electric car. They are creati

• ulfw 10y ago
  Ten times longer. Where is the proof in that hyperbole statement? So a Tesla lasts 200 years? And really - lithium ion batteries don't go bad ever? Of course an electric car needs less maintenance on engine, transmission etc. But it is by no means no maintenance. Especially a Tesla. See all the reports of people reporting how much repairing and maintenance they have to do. http://gas2.org/2016/05/21/2012-tesla-model-s-needs-8500-brake-repair/ http://gas2.org/2016/05/21/2012-tesla-model-s-needs-8500-bra...
• RealityVoid 10y ago
  Are you kidding me? 10 times longer lifespan is _huge_, if we assume the average car lasts only 10 years that would mean you'd be able to use a Tesla for 100 years. That is totally not happening, especially with Tesla's reluctance to share maintenance manuals. It seems, on the contrary, that the Tesla cars have lower life-span than classic combustion engine cars.
  • toomuchtodo 10y ago
    Elon has specifically said he's targeted a million miles of reliabiiity on the drivetrain. Maybe not 10 times longer, but still far more service life than a traditional ICE. Tesla doesn't need to share the repair manuals. You're not touching the battery pack internals or the electric motors; if they fail, they are swapped out entirely and sent to the Gigafactory refurbishment line.
    • RealityVoid 10y ago
      The Tesla is far more than a battery pack on wheels. There are plenty of things that can fail and need to be repaired. Failing to facilitate that means the lifespan of the car si significantly reduced.
      • toomuchtodo 10y ago
        Could you be specific what non-drivetrain components could fail that can't easily be swapped out on site or at a service center?
        • makomk 10y ago
          You mean other than the chassis, body panels, doors, undercarriage... Not to mention the question of repair costs and parts availability, both of which are pretty bad. Where are you going to get (say) a replacement for the incredibly complex and unreliable door handle mechanism for the Model S in a few years time once the car's no longer in production? The model-specific battery pack? All the electronics systems based around Nvidia chips that'll be long out of production?
          • toomuchtodo 10y ago
            As long as Tesla is still in business, replacements will be available. They still fully support the Roadster, even providing an updated battery pack at cost to owners. Model specific battery packs? You're aware the battery packs are all the same form factor, correct? They have an 8 year battery/motor drivetrain warranty on the S and X models, which means they'll produce compatible packs for at least 8 years from the last vehicle of a model rolling off the line.
• japhyr 10y ago
  Are the advances in battery technology going to allow this? 10 times longer is a long time to own a car; I assume there will be pretty significant improvements in electric cars over that time period. I wonder if this would just create a massive secondary market for used Teslas?
• sharpercoder 10y ago
  I think you mean "use-span", not life-span. I can imagine an electric car doing 1M KM easily, and surpass 2M by manual driving. Furthermore, if we enter the robocar age, this may go up dramatically as computers may be able to drive much safer and therefore drivup the "use-span" even more.
• makomk 10y ago
  From what I can tell, Tesla doesn't offer extended warranty past 100k miles on the non-drivetrain components. The eight-year, infinite-mile warranty only applies to the battery, drive unit and drivetrain; it largely exists to reassure customers who are worried about their rather high drivetrain failure rate and the fact that lithium batteries often have very short lifespans.