4 ms·

Nice. Those are small parts, though. The interesting part is the E-axle. BYD builds a unit with an integrated motor, differential, axle, and wheel hubs. That,

by Animats 5mo ago

Nice. Those are small parts, though. The interesting part is the E-axle. BYD builds a unit with an integrated motor, differential, axle, and wheel hubs. That, plus an electronics box and battery, is the power train. This simplifies vehicles considerably. There are E-axle teardown videos. There's no big secret about how to do this. Copying this is hard for Detroit, because they have a huge investment in "engine plants". With this design, BYD doesn't need standalone engine plants. Tesla ought to be doing this, but they're into performance, not cost. They want to put two or four motors in a car. BYD does make supercars, to show off, but their volume products are reasonably good cars with E-axles and lithium iron phosphate batteries, which work fine. (It's not clear that Tesla is even into car design at all any more, but that's another issue.) Detroit ought to be doing this, but they insist on making electric cars that are modified gasoline cars. Ford has an electric Mustang, an electric F-150, and an electric Transit. Chrysler doesn't even make cars any more, just one minivan. GM has a good Bolt now, which they are killing to appease Trump.

joe_mamba 5mo ago
>This simplifies vehicles considerably. On the contrary, this much integration makes repairs nearly impossible, meaning you might have to swap the whole unit(for a lot of $$$) when something small inside it inevitably breaks. Check out the articles published by EVclinic that cover such cases. Aftermarket EV repairs are already big business due to how difficult and expensive the OEMs make it.
- HPsquared 5mo ago
  The eternal conflict between "design for manufacture" and "design for maintenance".
  - justinclift 5mo ago
    Apparently both can be done together, it's just that it takes a bunch more effort so most places don't bother.
- rwmj 5mo ago
  There's a reason everyone calls them mobile phones with wheels. Edit: I agree with you and upvoted your comment which I feel was unfairly downvoted. But economics are going to win here, only a tiny fraction of the user base of cars (or phones) tinkers with them.
  - binary132 5mo ago
    People don’t want cars they can tinker with, they want cars they can get repaired instead of replaced when something breaks….
    - rwmj 5mo ago
      People actually want a convenient and cheap service for getting around. All other considerations can be derived from this. If it was cheaper to replace the car than get it serviced, they would replace it. Currently this is almost never the case of course, but if it happens in future, watch people switch behaviour instantly.
      - bcrosby95 5mo ago
        > If it was cheaper to replace the car than get it serviced, they would replace it. This is doing a lot of work but I'm going to go with a charitable interpretation. I seriously doubt that we'll ever hit a state where replacing a 2 ton vehicle is cheaper than repairing it. And if we do, I'll have to re-evaluate my charitable interpretation, because something shady is likely going on. The crazy thing is people don't even repair things that are cheaper to repair than replace. Our countertop icemaker broke and my wife wanted to throw it out. I fixed it with 20 minutes of time and a $15 motor from Amazon. I think the broader trend isn't what's cheapest, its what is easiest, even if its more expensive. People in large part have no idea how to repair anything they own. This mass ignorance is leading to some pretty poor market incentives.
        joe_mamba 5mo ago
        >I think the broader trend isn't what's cheapest, its what is easiest, even if its more expensive. I don't think this is true. If this is the trend you're seeing it's probably because you're sampling through people with relatively high disposable income(or who don't mind endless credit card debt), who can just afford to throw away broken things when it's just a rounding error of their income. But if you look at lower income people(with sane spending habits and financial literacy) you'll see how they first ask around if something can be repaired before they claw money from their checking account to buy something new. My local facebook group is full of students asking if someone can fix their macbooks for cheap as they can't afford a new one or what Apple is quoting them, which is close in cost to buying a new one. My minimum wage gf still had her barely functional Windows 7 notebook up until a year ago because she didn't feel like spending money to buy a new one if I could just keep fixing it. Some broke people try not to buy new things if they can, but some are broke because they can't stop buying new things.
- lowbloodsugar 5mo ago
  Most of those stories are 1/ crashes and 2/ hybrids. Again, with rare exception, manufacturers are just making gas cars with EV power trains. Tesla and BYD are making next gen transport. Are you old enough to remember when TVs broke so often that TV Repairman was a job? One day we will look back on car mechanics the same way. I do remember the visceral joy of trying to keep a supercharged Camaro on the track, but those memories are overwhelmed by the terror of “what is that noise”. Now I drive a Tesla that accelerates faster than that Camaro, handles better, and hasn’t been to the shop once. If I win the lottery I will buy another Camaro and a Corvette and I’ll work on them for fun, and kids will look at me the way I looked at old men who take care of antique steam engines and traction engines and take them to fairs. That sure is a lot of noise and smoke and doohickeys for very little speed and power!
  - joe_mamba 5mo ago
    >Most of those stories are 1/ crashes and 2/ hybrids. No, they're faulty coolant seals of the electric motor, wrecking the power unit. >but those memories are overwhelmed by the terror of “what is that noise”. I just turned up the music till the noise went away. Problem solved. >Now I drive a Tesla that accelerates faster than that Camaro, handles better, and hasn’t been to the shop once. Good for you, but do you know there's a whole lotta other EV brands out there? And many are not as well and reliably designed as your Tesla. >I do remember the visceral joy of trying to keep a supercharged Camaro [...] If I win the lottery I will buy another Camaro and a Corvette and I’ll work on them for fun Nice story, but what does all this have to do with the parent you're replying to? Did he mention ICEs anywhere?
    - Toutouxc 5mo ago
      > turned up the music till the noise went away I viscerally hate people who do or seriously suggest this. First, ignoring any strange noise in a car almost always leads to more expensive and stressful repairs down the road. Second, how the hell do people hear a noise and are simply okay with not knowing the source? Not understanding the situation and not being able to make any kind of informed decision?
- mnahkies 5mo ago
  I don't have so much knowledge about EV repairs, but I got burnt by this on ICE cars already - had a car fail a regular fitness test on suspension bushes, they weren't replaceable without replacing the whole arm(s). What should've been a $40 part was being quoted as more than the cars value. (I'm not sure if there was a way around this, there may well have been but I had other things going on and sold for scrap)
  - jhatax 5mo ago
    FWIW, this has been my experience since 2003 when I had to get suspension work done. Doesn’t matter if it’s a BMW or Honda, dealership or indie repair shop, the story I have heard consistently is that the bushing is part of the arm for structural integrity, stability, <reason I can’t remember, truth or crock>. Bushings typically fail faster than the arm does, and this repair is expensive ($1000+ for performance cars, not that much cheaper for Civics). The “Design for purported Safety vs. Design for Saving Dollars” principle at work.
    - simplyluke 5mo ago
      > repair is expensive ($1000+ for performance cars, not that much cheaper for Civics) I can almost guarantee the lion's share of this is shop labor, not parts, and pressing a bushing out and back in would be more expensive after accounting for that labor than just swapping the suspension arms. This is often the piece that gets missed in these discussions of "why am I replacing this huge assembly for a tiny part", if the whole assembly is coming out to deal with that tiny part anyways and shop labor is $200/hour it's cheaper to swap the assembly a lot of the time. Try getting any repair beyond routine maintenance done on a car in the US for under $1000 these days. Car maintenance is one of the things I'm happy to DIY in most cases because the delta on costs is massive and as someone that works on computers all day it's vaguely enjoyable to get angry at a mechanical object for a change.
      - brianwawok 5mo ago
        I’ve moved in to doing my own plumbing, electric, HVAC. Tend to keep new enough cars that they don’t need much, knock on wood. But it’s not uncommon in “making” $500 an hour or more doing electric or HVAC.
- cyberax 5mo ago
  Why would it be less repairable? Power electronics are still modular and are easily swappable. Mechanical parts are more integrated, but they so simple that they can last for decades. And once they give out, you can just replace the whole unit for maybe $2000.
  - joe_mamba 5mo ago
    >Power electronics are still modular and are easily swappable. Only if someone makes and sells those power electronics to you along with the appropriate DRM tools required for calibration and pairing with the other electronics of the car. Otherwise you're shit outta luck. >Mechanical parts are more integrated, but they so simple that they can last for decades. Simple != decades of reliability, when the design and manufacturing quality are piss poor in the race to the bottom for cost cutting and shareholder returns. Timing chains were also supposed to last a lifetime but plenty have been recalled due to know timing chain issues from manufacturing quality. VW and Kia/Hyundai EVs were found to use custom dimensions motor bearings that can't be bought on the open market from anywhere, so only the OEM and their dealers can get them via their supply chain.
    - cyberax 5mo ago
      There is nothing terribly complicated there. It's just an AC motor ("brushless DC") with a classic 3-phase inverter and a resolver. There are plenty of companies that make controllers for this kind of setup. Granted, they are typically not powerful enough for SOTA drivetrains, but it's a question of time. Power electronics will need to fit into the footprint of the e-axle. Or maybe you'll need to manufacture a new housing. Both are easily doable for small companies. > VW and Kia/Hyundai EVs were found to use custom dimensions motor bearings that can't be bought on the open market from anywhere, so only the OEM and their dealers can get them via their supply chain. Again, an independent manufacturer can easily make them.
      - joe_mamba 5mo ago
        >Both are easily doable for small companies. As cheap as the mass produced ones with the economies of scale? I seriously doubt it. You're talking about a car ECU. Go see how much ECUs cost that don't deal with power electronics. >Again, an independent manufacturer can easily make them. Yeah but again, for how much? You can make anything if money is no option. But if cost is too high people will just scrap the car and buy a new one.
- binary132 5mo ago
  I’m very confused as to why this is downvoted but I tossed you an upvote since I do my best to work against the constant brigading I always see on this forum.
  - joe_mamba 5mo ago
    >I’m very confused as to why this is downvoted HN doesn't like like opinions that don't paint EVs in the best light possible. It's like a religious cult in some regards.
- ssl-3 5mo ago
  On the other hand: If the assembly is reliable-enough, then repair isn't normally something that needs to be pursued in the first place. Like Honda engines on their myriad pedestrian cars. I'm sure there's exceptions, but the engines tend to be ridiculously reliable. The rest of the car often fails (due to age and/or rot and/or deferred maintenance and/or crash) and leaves a very good engine behind. Accordingly, junkyards are full of Honda engines that work fine. Thus, there's very few people rebuilding them. They certainly can be rebuilt, but it usually just doesn't make financial sense to strip it all down and freshen everything up. So when an engine does fail on an otherwise-working Honda daily-driver that is actually worth repairing, then the usual move is to swap in a used motor. --- So if it's reliable enough, and there's also critical mass, then it doesn't matter much if the BYD drivetrain unit has easily-repairable components.
  - B1FF_PSUVM 5mo ago
    > pedestrian cars. That's an interesting turn of phrase ...
    - ssl-3 5mo ago
      Thanks. As the owner of a 14-year-old Honda that is equipped in the most lavish of trim options, I found great pleasure in selecting that particular subperlative.
  - joe_mamba 5mo ago
    >So if it's reliable enough, and there's also critical mass, then it doesn't matter much if the BYD drivetrain unit has easily-repairable components. True, but swapping ICE engines was such an easy fix because of the modularity of powertrains that detached the messy hot rotating vibrating part(engine block) from the electronics and the rest. These new ultra compact EV units are like if the ECU, catalytic converters, and starter motor would be built inside the engine block.
    - ssl-3 5mo ago
      Here's a teardown of a recent BYD rear drive unit, performed by Paul Turnbull -- lead engineer at Munro and Associates. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LfDuyqmsts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LfDuyqmsts In very broad strokes: It's just a BLDC motor, some driver components for those spinny-bits, plus some water cooling passages and gears. A surprising number of these parts are identified as having been provided by Borg Warner. That's nothing like what you describe at all.
- stx5 5mo ago
  that's the reason why BYD provides lifelong warrant for their batteries, motors
  - joe_mamba 5mo ago
    Which is a scam. As with all car brands, that so called "lifetime warranty" has so many asterisks on the fine print and is only valid if religiously you stick to the manufacturer recommended regular service intervals where they rip you off at every visit. https://x.com/teslaxander/status/2062110635257700829 https://x.com/teslaxander/status/2062110635257700829
    - erxam 5mo ago
      > if religiously you stick to the manufacturer recommended regular service intervals where they rip you off at every visit. That's something you're supposed to do for any and every car. I had to do it on my Japanese cars to keep the warranty. Also, the last people I want to hear complaining about being ripped off by dealership service intervals are Germans. At least for Chinese cars, you do it for the warranty. For German cars, you have to bring it in for the services at the specified interval (or, in many cases, even shorter intervals!) or else it will blow up in new and exciting ways and basically total the damn thing. Oh, and the services for German cars start at around 1500 euros. Hope you're rich!
    - stx5 5mo ago
      have you ever done any research? My BYD B5 (Denza B5) cost 40 usd per service, every 10000km
ErroneousBosh 5mo ago
> BYD builds a unit with an integrated motor, differential, axle, and wheel hubs So wait, the whole axle is solid then? Like a 1960s pickup truck but with all the weight of the motor and gearbox hanging off it too? That must give it ridiculous unsprung weight.
- serf 5mo ago
  it's not really like a 'live axle' from an older truck, it's more like a de-Dion style suspension (or dead axle). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Dion_suspension https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Dion_suspension you still see these in velocipede-style vehicles commonly. and to your point : a dead axle is an effort to reduce unsprung weight compared to a live axle; it also lets you actually use alignment as a remediation for asymmetry issues rather than just pre-delivery straightening.
  - ErroneousBosh 5mo ago
    Ah, like on my old Volvo 340 ;-) They were fun, all that weight at the back (the diff and gearbox were bolted together under the rear floor) gave it excellent balance. Bit of a shame all that 50/50 weight distribution was only pushed along by a 1.4 Renault engine then, I guess. Have you ever seen the Jaguar IRS setup? It's more like a twin-wishbone suspension *but the driveshaft is the upper link!* It's in compression and stops the hub tilting out, and the rear brakes are inboard to reduce weight even further.
- numpad0 5mo ago
  Looks like they do in-hub motor for buses and in-differential(like everyone else) for passenger cars?
- sephamorr 5mo ago
  On the platforms I've worked with, the weight isn't the issue so much as the quantity of expensive and vibe sensitive parts that are unsprung.
bluGill 5mo ago
GM has several EVs that are ground up designs. They look just like the ICE version but that is cosmetic, everything else is different.
- AlotOfReading 5mo ago
  Now if only GM's executives could stop snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
m463 5mo ago
> Tesla ought to be doing this, but they're into performance, not cost. not as much anymore. model s/x discontinued. https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/tesla-kills-models-s-and-x-to-build-humanoid-robots-instead/ https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/tesla-kills-models-s-an...
dghlsakjg 5mo ago
You have some false beliefs about Detroit’s product lines. Fords mustang mach e is unrelated to the gas one. Totally different platform. It was designed from the ground up as an electric platform. The electric F-150 was a shrewd bet that didn’t pay off, but a pretty defensible decision to try to electrify the most popular vehicle in North America without changing the outside look too much. Under the sheet metal it doesn’t share a lot of drivetrain parts with the gas truck. Chevy makes full size electric trucks on an all electric platform with three truck/SUV models across three brands. The bolt was cancelled in 2022 with the last one produced in December 2023. They have restarted production of the Bolt for the 2026 model year. The Bolt is also built on a platform designed as electric only. The factory building the Bolt is being tentatively retooled next year to build higher margin cars as a result of Trumps tariffs. I don’t see how any of that has anything to do with appeasing Trump. Stellantis is its own mess, and they suck at designing all cars regardless of energy source.
- imp0cat 5mo ago
  > Fords mustang mach e is unrelated to the gas one. That is right! Some might even go as far as to call the electric Mustang an abomination, a disgrace of the Mustang name.
- Animats 5mo ago
  True, the Mach E mostly just shares the name. The E-Transit really is the same van with a different power train. It ought to be taking over fleet sales, but it only sells about 12K units/year, vs. 162K for the fuel powered version. The Ford electric F-150 was overdesigned and overpriced. Comments on the Bolt indicate it's being killed due to "changes in the political environment."

by Animats 5mo ago

joe_mamba 5mo ago

>This simplifies vehicles considerably. On the contrary, this much integration makes repairs nearly impossible, meaning you might have to swap the whole unit(for a lot of $$$) when something small inside it inevitably breaks. Check out the articles published by EVclinic that cover such cases. Aftermarket EV repairs are already big business due to how difficult and expensive the OEMs make it.

HPsquared 5mo ago
The eternal conflict between "design for manufacture" and "design for maintenance".
- justinclift 5mo ago
  Apparently both can be done together, it's just that it takes a bunch more effort so most places don't bother.
rwmj 5mo ago
There's a reason everyone calls them mobile phones with wheels. Edit: I agree with you and upvoted your comment which I feel was unfairly downvoted. But economics are going to win here, only a tiny fraction of the user base of cars (or phones) tinkers with them.
- binary132 5mo ago
  People don’t want cars they can tinker with, they want cars they can get repaired instead of replaced when something breaks….
  - rwmj 5mo ago
    People actually want a convenient and cheap service for getting around. All other considerations can be derived from this. If it was cheaper to replace the car than get it serviced, they would replace it. Currently this is almost never the case of course, but if it happens in future, watch people switch behaviour instantly.
    - bcrosby95 5mo ago
      > If it was cheaper to replace the car than get it serviced, they would replace it. This is doing a lot of work but I'm going to go with a charitable interpretation. I seriously doubt that we'll ever hit a state where replacing a 2 ton vehicle is cheaper than repairing it. And if we do, I'll have to re-evaluate my charitable interpretation, because something shady is likely going on. The crazy thing is people don't even repair things that are cheaper to repair than replace. Our countertop icemaker broke and my wife wanted to throw it out. I fixed it with 20 minutes of time and a $15 motor from Amazon. I think the broader trend isn't what's cheapest, its what is easiest, even if its more expensive. People in large part have no idea how to repair anything they own. This mass ignorance is leading to some pretty poor market incentives.
      - joe_mamba 5mo ago
        >I think the broader trend isn't what's cheapest, its what is easiest, even if its more expensive. I don't think this is true. If this is the trend you're seeing it's probably because you're sampling through people with relatively high disposable income(or who don't mind endless credit card debt), who can just afford to throw away broken things when it's just a rounding error of their income. But if you look at lower income people(with sane spending habits and financial literacy) you'll see how they first ask around if something can be repaired before they claw money from their checking account to buy something new. My local facebook group is full of students asking if someone can fix their macbooks for cheap as they can't afford a new one or what Apple is quoting them, which is close in cost to buying a new one. My minimum wage gf still had her barely functional Windows 7 notebook up until a year ago because she didn't feel like spending money to buy a new one if I could just keep fixing it. Some broke people try not to buy new things if they can, but some are broke because they can't stop buying new things.
lowbloodsugar 5mo ago
Most of those stories are 1/ crashes and 2/ hybrids. Again, with rare exception, manufacturers are just making gas cars with EV power trains. Tesla and BYD are making next gen transport. Are you old enough to remember when TVs broke so often that TV Repairman was a job? One day we will look back on car mechanics the same way. I do remember the visceral joy of trying to keep a supercharged Camaro on the track, but those memories are overwhelmed by the terror of “what is that noise”. Now I drive a Tesla that accelerates faster than that Camaro, handles better, and hasn’t been to the shop once. If I win the lottery I will buy another Camaro and a Corvette and I’ll work on them for fun, and kids will look at me the way I looked at old men who take care of antique steam engines and traction engines and take them to fairs. That sure is a lot of noise and smoke and doohickeys for very little speed and power!
- joe_mamba 5mo ago
  >Most of those stories are 1/ crashes and 2/ hybrids. No, they're faulty coolant seals of the electric motor, wrecking the power unit. >but those memories are overwhelmed by the terror of “what is that noise”. I just turned up the music till the noise went away. Problem solved. >Now I drive a Tesla that accelerates faster than that Camaro, handles better, and hasn’t been to the shop once. Good for you, but do you know there's a whole lotta other EV brands out there? And many are not as well and reliably designed as your Tesla. >I do remember the visceral joy of trying to keep a supercharged Camaro [...] If I win the lottery I will buy another Camaro and a Corvette and I’ll work on them for fun Nice story, but what does all this have to do with the parent you're replying to? Did he mention ICEs anywhere?
  - Toutouxc 5mo ago
    > turned up the music till the noise went away I viscerally hate people who do or seriously suggest this. First, ignoring any strange noise in a car almost always leads to more expensive and stressful repairs down the road. Second, how the hell do people hear a noise and are simply okay with not knowing the source? Not understanding the situation and not being able to make any kind of informed decision?
mnahkies 5mo ago
I don't have so much knowledge about EV repairs, but I got burnt by this on ICE cars already - had a car fail a regular fitness test on suspension bushes, they weren't replaceable without replacing the whole arm(s). What should've been a $40 part was being quoted as more than the cars value. (I'm not sure if there was a way around this, there may well have been but I had other things going on and sold for scrap)
- jhatax 5mo ago
  FWIW, this has been my experience since 2003 when I had to get suspension work done. Doesn’t matter if it’s a BMW or Honda, dealership or indie repair shop, the story I have heard consistently is that the bushing is part of the arm for structural integrity, stability, <reason I can’t remember, truth or crock>. Bushings typically fail faster than the arm does, and this repair is expensive ($1000+ for performance cars, not that much cheaper for Civics). The “Design for purported Safety vs. Design for Saving Dollars” principle at work.
  - simplyluke 5mo ago
    > repair is expensive ($1000+ for performance cars, not that much cheaper for Civics) I can almost guarantee the lion's share of this is shop labor, not parts, and pressing a bushing out and back in would be more expensive after accounting for that labor than just swapping the suspension arms. This is often the piece that gets missed in these discussions of "why am I replacing this huge assembly for a tiny part", if the whole assembly is coming out to deal with that tiny part anyways and shop labor is $200/hour it's cheaper to swap the assembly a lot of the time. Try getting any repair beyond routine maintenance done on a car in the US for under $1000 these days. Car maintenance is one of the things I'm happy to DIY in most cases because the delta on costs is massive and as someone that works on computers all day it's vaguely enjoyable to get angry at a mechanical object for a change.
    - brianwawok 5mo ago
      I’ve moved in to doing my own plumbing, electric, HVAC. Tend to keep new enough cars that they don’t need much, knock on wood. But it’s not uncommon in “making” $500 an hour or more doing electric or HVAC.
cyberax 5mo ago
Why would it be less repairable? Power electronics are still modular and are easily swappable. Mechanical parts are more integrated, but they so simple that they can last for decades. And once they give out, you can just replace the whole unit for maybe $2000.
- joe_mamba 5mo ago
  >Power electronics are still modular and are easily swappable. Only if someone makes and sells those power electronics to you along with the appropriate DRM tools required for calibration and pairing with the other electronics of the car. Otherwise you're shit outta luck. >Mechanical parts are more integrated, but they so simple that they can last for decades. Simple != decades of reliability, when the design and manufacturing quality are piss poor in the race to the bottom for cost cutting and shareholder returns. Timing chains were also supposed to last a lifetime but plenty have been recalled due to know timing chain issues from manufacturing quality. VW and Kia/Hyundai EVs were found to use custom dimensions motor bearings that can't be bought on the open market from anywhere, so only the OEM and their dealers can get them via their supply chain.
  - cyberax 5mo ago
    There is nothing terribly complicated there. It's just an AC motor ("brushless DC") with a classic 3-phase inverter and a resolver. There are plenty of companies that make controllers for this kind of setup. Granted, they are typically not powerful enough for SOTA drivetrains, but it's a question of time. Power electronics will need to fit into the footprint of the e-axle. Or maybe you'll need to manufacture a new housing. Both are easily doable for small companies. > VW and Kia/Hyundai EVs were found to use custom dimensions motor bearings that can't be bought on the open market from anywhere, so only the OEM and their dealers can get them via their supply chain. Again, an independent manufacturer can easily make them.
    - joe_mamba 5mo ago
      >Both are easily doable for small companies. As cheap as the mass produced ones with the economies of scale? I seriously doubt it. You're talking about a car ECU. Go see how much ECUs cost that don't deal with power electronics. >Again, an independent manufacturer can easily make them. Yeah but again, for how much? You can make anything if money is no option. But if cost is too high people will just scrap the car and buy a new one.
binary132 5mo ago
I’m very confused as to why this is downvoted but I tossed you an upvote since I do my best to work against the constant brigading I always see on this forum.
- joe_mamba 5mo ago
  >I’m very confused as to why this is downvoted HN doesn't like like opinions that don't paint EVs in the best light possible. It's like a religious cult in some regards.
ssl-3 5mo ago
On the other hand: If the assembly is reliable-enough, then repair isn't normally something that needs to be pursued in the first place. Like Honda engines on their myriad pedestrian cars. I'm sure there's exceptions, but the engines tend to be ridiculously reliable. The rest of the car often fails (due to age and/or rot and/or deferred maintenance and/or crash) and leaves a very good engine behind. Accordingly, junkyards are full of Honda engines that work fine. Thus, there's very few people rebuilding them. They certainly can be rebuilt, but it usually just doesn't make financial sense to strip it all down and freshen everything up. So when an engine does fail on an otherwise-working Honda daily-driver that is actually worth repairing, then the usual move is to swap in a used motor. --- So if it's reliable enough, and there's also critical mass, then it doesn't matter much if the BYD drivetrain unit has easily-repairable components.
- B1FF_PSUVM 5mo ago
  > pedestrian cars. That's an interesting turn of phrase ...
  - ssl-3 5mo ago
    Thanks. As the owner of a 14-year-old Honda that is equipped in the most lavish of trim options, I found great pleasure in selecting that particular subperlative.
- joe_mamba 5mo ago
  >So if it's reliable enough, and there's also critical mass, then it doesn't matter much if the BYD drivetrain unit has easily-repairable components. True, but swapping ICE engines was such an easy fix because of the modularity of powertrains that detached the messy hot rotating vibrating part(engine block) from the electronics and the rest. These new ultra compact EV units are like if the ECU, catalytic converters, and starter motor would be built inside the engine block.
  - ssl-3 5mo ago
    Here's a teardown of a recent BYD rear drive unit, performed by Paul Turnbull -- lead engineer at Munro and Associates. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LfDuyqmsts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LfDuyqmsts In very broad strokes: It's just a BLDC motor, some driver components for those spinny-bits, plus some water cooling passages and gears. A surprising number of these parts are identified as having been provided by Borg Warner. That's nothing like what you describe at all.
stx5 5mo ago
that's the reason why BYD provides lifelong warrant for their batteries, motors
- joe_mamba 5mo ago
  Which is a scam. As with all car brands, that so called "lifetime warranty" has so many asterisks on the fine print and is only valid if religiously you stick to the manufacturer recommended regular service intervals where they rip you off at every visit. https://x.com/teslaxander/status/2062110635257700829 https://x.com/teslaxander/status/2062110635257700829
  - erxam 5mo ago
    > if religiously you stick to the manufacturer recommended regular service intervals where they rip you off at every visit. That's something you're supposed to do for any and every car. I had to do it on my Japanese cars to keep the warranty. Also, the last people I want to hear complaining about being ripped off by dealership service intervals are Germans. At least for Chinese cars, you do it for the warranty. For German cars, you have to bring it in for the services at the specified interval (or, in many cases, even shorter intervals!) or else it will blow up in new and exciting ways and basically total the damn thing. Oh, and the services for German cars start at around 1500 euros. Hope you're rich!
  - stx5 5mo ago
    have you ever done any research? My BYD B5 (Denza B5) cost 40 usd per service, every 10000km

ErroneousBosh 5mo ago

> BYD builds a unit with an integrated motor, differential, axle, and wheel hubs So wait, the whole axle is solid then? Like a 1960s pickup truck but with all the weight of the motor and gearbox hanging off it too? That must give it ridiculous unsprung weight.

serf 5mo ago
it's not really like a 'live axle' from an older truck, it's more like a de-Dion style suspension (or dead axle). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Dion_suspension https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Dion_suspension you still see these in velocipede-style vehicles commonly. and to your point : a dead axle is an effort to reduce unsprung weight compared to a live axle; it also lets you actually use alignment as a remediation for asymmetry issues rather than just pre-delivery straightening.
- ErroneousBosh 5mo ago
  Ah, like on my old Volvo 340 ;-) They were fun, all that weight at the back (the diff and gearbox were bolted together under the rear floor) gave it excellent balance. Bit of a shame all that 50/50 weight distribution was only pushed along by a 1.4 Renault engine then, I guess. Have you ever seen the Jaguar IRS setup? It's more like a twin-wishbone suspension *but the driveshaft is the upper link!* It's in compression and stops the hub tilting out, and the rear brakes are inboard to reduce weight even further.
numpad0 5mo ago
Looks like they do in-hub motor for buses and in-differential(like everyone else) for passenger cars?
sephamorr 5mo ago
On the platforms I've worked with, the weight isn't the issue so much as the quantity of expensive and vibe sensitive parts that are unsprung.

bluGill 5mo ago

GM has several EVs that are ground up designs. They look just like the ICE version but that is cosmetic, everything else is different.

AlotOfReading 5mo ago
Now if only GM's executives could stop snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

m463 5mo ago

> Tesla ought to be doing this, but they're into performance, not cost. not as much anymore. model s/x discontinued. https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/tesla-kills-models-s-and-x-to-build-humanoid-robots-instead/ https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/tesla-kills-models-s-an...

dghlsakjg 5mo ago

You have some false beliefs about Detroit’s product lines. Fords mustang mach e is unrelated to the gas one. Totally different platform. It was designed from the ground up as an electric platform. The electric F-150 was a shrewd bet that didn’t pay off, but a pretty defensible decision to try to electrify the most popular vehicle in North America without changing the outside look too much. Under the sheet metal it doesn’t share a lot of drivetrain parts with the gas truck. Chevy makes full size electric trucks on an all electric platform with three truck/SUV models across three brands. The bolt was cancelled in 2022 with the last one produced in December 2023. They have restarted production of the Bolt for the 2026 model year. The Bolt is also built on a platform designed as electric only. The factory building the Bolt is being tentatively retooled next year to build higher margin cars as a result of Trumps tariffs. I don’t see how any of that has anything to do with appeasing Trump. Stellantis is its own mess, and they suck at designing all cars regardless of energy source.

imp0cat 5mo ago
> Fords mustang mach e is unrelated to the gas one. That is right! Some might even go as far as to call the electric Mustang an abomination, a disgrace of the Mustang name.
Animats 5mo ago
True, the Mach E mostly just shares the name. The E-Transit really is the same van with a different power train. It ought to be taking over fleet sales, but it only sells about 12K units/year, vs. 162K for the fuel powered version. The Ford electric F-150 was overdesigned and overpriced. Comments on the Bolt indicate it's being killed due to "changes in the political environment."