Tesla Roadster Update
For today’s post we’ve got a rare update on the new Roadster from Tesla’s chief designer, a new Tesla Design centre in Beijing? Starlink burns up, The Model X ramp up ‘disaster’, and we get to the bottom of the bottom of the ongoing heat pump issue. So let’s get going.
Tesla Roadster Update
The Tesla Roadster V2 is one of those concept cars that we desperately want to see become reality, but in the 4, going on 5 years since the very first teaser of this electric hypercar, we have had precious little in the way of updates on this vehicle. Aside from Elon Musk saying repeatedly that he’s going to add rocket thrusters to the car and maybe make it fly.
But, just recently we did hear some words on the Roadster from a very valuable source, that’s Franz von Holzhausen, the chief product designer at Tesla. Franz recently made an appearance at the Spikes Car Radio podcast, where he dropped a very rare update on the next-generation Roadster.
When asked about the Roadster, he noted that Tesla is still working very hard on the flagship supercar, and the company is currently learning a lot from its projects like the Plaid platform.
Franz told listeners: “We are working on the Roadster. I wish we were working faster, but I have to also say that in the time that we’ve been developing it, we’ve also been learning a lot. Like, Plaid is a great learning platform, that all those experiences will, you know, make its way back to a much better Roadster than had we launched right after when we debuted it.”
So, fair enough, if Tesla had actually released the car back in 2019, then it wouldn't have been nearly as good as it will be when it finally does come out. Makes sense. I think that also reveals that whatever Tesla had in mind for the three motor powertrain in the 2017 Roadster concept, was not as advanced as the three motor Plaid system that is in the Model S and X. And that confirms the widely held theory that the performance specs on the production Roadster will exceed what was promised in 2017. At least as far as the laws of physics allow.
Of course, one way to get around some of the laws that govern what’s possible with a conventional vehicle, is to use an unconventional power source. Like a cold gas rocket thruster from SpaceX. Now it’s not just Elon talking about putting rockets in the Roadster, Franz echoed that same idea, saying, “It will be an amazing, exciting flying machine with the SpaceX package. So, stay tuned. But you know, no product can come fast enough from us for the public. But rest assured, we’re working on it feverishly. The third dimension is pretty hard to manage… In the Roadster’s instance, I think defying gravity is an interesting idea.”
Franz didn’t give any more details than that, but previously Elon has promised that with the SpaceX thruster, the car would do zero to 60 in 1 point 1 seconds. And maybe even make short hops in the air.
Tesla China Design Center Will Reportedly Land in Beijing
Tesla China is reportedly making their first big move into the country’s capital city of Beijing with a new research and sign center.
The idea of building a design center in China was first put up by Tesla back in 2020, saying that it would be responsible for creating ‘international electric vehicles’. Tesla began the hiring process later that year, encouraging anyone with a passion for cars or the design process to apply.
Ever since then, details on the project have been slim. For a while we were hearing that a new research and development center was being built by Tesla in Shanghai, and we were told that was where the supposed 25K, affordable car was being made. I think at this point we can say that rumor was either untrue or more speculative than it was presented as. Because Elon Musk himself recently said that Tesla is not working on that car at all.
However, The Wall Street Journal stated in a new report last week that Chinese government documents show a Tesla Design Center will land in Beijing. This news comes from a document released by the Beijing municipal government that outlines key work sites in the city for the year 2022.
This same report highlighted a number of electric vehicle related construction in Beijing, including a new car factory from Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi.
This is also inline with comments that Elon Musk made at a presentation in Shanghai early in 2020, when he told Chinese investors: “We intend to continue making a significant investment and increasing the investment in China.”
Tesla’s Beijing Design Center would become the company’s second design center after the one in Los Angeles California, which houses most of the company’s designers and some engineering teams. In 2020, Elon also announced plans for Tesla to open a European design center in the heart of Berlin, Germany.
Starlink Batch Lost to Storm
Dozens of Starlink Satellites have fallen back to Earth after being disabled in orbit by a magnetic storm.
40 out of the 49 Starlink satellites launched on February 3rd were destroyed by a geomagnetic storm in low Earth orbit that was triggered by an outburst of energy from the Sun. A storm like this happens when the Earth’s magnetosphere is impacted by solar wind.
This particular hit increased the heat in the atmosphere, and therefore an increase in the density. Since these satellites were newly deployed and had not risen to their operating altitude yet, they were hit by that increased drag and pulled down. SpaceX says the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50 percent higher than during previous launches.
Luckily the satellites are designed to incinerate completely when they reenter Earth’s atmosphere, so no pieces reached the ground that we know of. It looks like the debris was actually caught on video burning up in the sky over Puerto Rico, it’s pretty crazy to watch.
While it’s probably not an ideal thing to happen, Elon Musk didn’t seem too worried about the loss, he replied to a tweet about the incident with just three emojis, one for magnet, one for storm and one for dead. And looking on the bright side, this is a real world demonstration that the Starlink failsafe strategy works, the disabled satellites simply fall down and burn up, no harm done.
These kinds of geomagnetic storms are not isolated incidents, and will actually become more common over the next few years. These are triggered by outbursts from the sun, which goes through cycles of high activity and low activity - we are currently ramping up to the peak activity of the 11 year cycle, which is forecast to arrive around the year 2025 - this also known as a Solar Maximum. So, we’re likely to see more powerful outbursts hit the Earth in the coming years that will have destructive effects on even higher numbers of small satellites in orbit.
Tesla ‘Still Haven’t Fully Recovered’ from Difficult Model X Ramp
Elon Musk recently said that the ramp up of Tesla’s Model X Refresh was a disaster that the automaker “still hasn’t fully recovered” from. Even though the Model X was Tesla’s third vehicle release behind the Roadster and Model S, it is still proving to give the company manufacturing difficulties; as Elon has always said, the “Model X is an extremely difficult car to build.”
Since ‘refreshing’ the Model S and Model X, in early 2021, only the sedan has contributed anything worth mentioning to the company’s quarterly delivery figures. The Model S began deliveries in July 2021. The Model X apparently has given Tesla more trouble.
Elon said on Twitter last week that Tesla quote, “dropped the ball badly regarding the new Model X production ramp & still haven’t fully recovered. Was idiotic to stop production of old X in Dec 2020 when there was still plenty of demand!”
Both the Model S and Model X production lines and the Fremont factory were halted, tipping off Tesla faithful that something was going on. Tesla then released details regarding both vehicles during the Q4 2020 Earnings Call, revealing the two updated vehicle designs.
Tesla owners who ordered the Model X after the announced redesign have experienced strange projections for delivery dates. While initial delivery dates were slotted for February 2021, by Q2, many of those projections had been pushed back to Q4 2021. This was only the beginning of the delays, however, as some Model X delivery timelines have been pushed back as far as March 2023.
What’s the Deal With Heat Pumps?
Tesla’s heat pump has been causing owners of the Model 3 and Model Y some grief this winter. As temperatures plummeted in certain parts of North America, some heat pumps failed to live up their name. There was no heat pumping.
Now, Tesla did very quickly take the issue to task and released a software update that relieved the main issue with the system. Though some owners are still finding themselves left out in the cold. We are now learning from an NHTSA recall just what that software fix entailed.
The reason the NHTSA got involved in this situation, as they seem to be doing very often lately when it comes to everything Tesla related, is because they felt the lack of windshield heating was a danger to all involved. Their statement reads: “Windshield defrost performance that does not fully comply with regulation may cause reduced windshield visibility in certain conditions, which may increase the risk of a collision.” Which is fair, as a Canadian driver, that is not a feature I’d want to be without. For the record, my Model 3 is an older version made long before the heat pump even existed and my heater works just fine, so can’t speak to any personal experience.
NHTSA explains the problem in detail in the new recall notice:
“In vehicles built with heat pump, the Electronic Expansion Valve may experience controller communication interruptions, after which the EXV driver may attempt to realign the EXV rotor by rotating it in a small increment toward the open direction. When heat pump equipped vehicles experience such interruptions, the vehicle software does not close the valve, and the accumulation of interruptions and subsequent realignments over extended periods where the vehicle is awake may result in an unintended valve opening event. This, in turn, may trap refrigerant inside the evaporator and may deplete the refrigerant from the active components in the system. The depletion may result in fail-safe compressor stoppage, and cause loss of cabin heating, particularly in temperatures –10 celsius or colder. While the windshield defrost system continues to operate with the condition present, defrost performance may not fully comply with regulation.”
So, it seems like a miscommunication with the part’s operating system. Luckily just an easy fix with over the air firmware updates and no need for a service call.
If anything, this just increases our want for Tesla to open an official Canadian headquarters. Not only to help us feel cool up here, but also so that they can invest in some rigorous, long term cold weather testing and optimization for the vehicles and components.
