In my previous video on Tesla not needing
to do traditional mainstream marketing, I
got a lot of comments that were in basic agreement
with my thoughts.
One thing people kept coming back to as a
reason to not advertise: their huge lead over
the competition.
But that got me thinking about what those
advantages actually are, and if those advantages
are in danger of being lost anytime soon.
There are 5 big advantages that I think set
Tesla far, far apart from the pack.
Before I dive in, take a moment and hit the
subscribe button and notification bell, so
you don’t miss out on future videos like
this one.
I’m Matt Ferrell ... welcome to Undecided.
It’s not an eye-catching headline, like
cars that drive themselves, but one of the
biggest under-the-hood advantages, pun intended,
that Tesla has is their motor design.
No other company has an electric motor on
the market that comes close to the performance/price
ratio of the Tesla Model 3’s permanent magnet
synchronous reluctance motor.
That’s a mouthful.
At least, not yet.
On Tesla’s other models, they’ve used
an induction motor design, which is one of
the most common electric motor designs in
the world.
The basic principles of a 3 phase induction
motor go back over 100 years to Nicola Tesla.[1]
The motor consists of a stator, which generates
a rotating magnetic field when current is
applied to a stator.
That rotating magnetic field, or RMF, is what
turns the rotor contained inside the stator.
The Tesla Model S and X induction asynchronous
motor doesn’t use rare earth metals, is
relatively small, and has incredibly high
torque and low rotations.
It’s what gives you the extra push in ludicrous
mode.
So what makes the Tesla Model 3 motor so special?
Unlike the induction motor design that Tesla
has used in the previous models, the reluctance
motor is taking advantage of permanent magnets.
To quote Konstantinos Laskaris, Tesla’s
Chief Motor Designer:
“It’s well known that permanent magnet
machines have the benefit of pre-excitation
from the magnets, and therefore you have some
efficiency benefit for that.”
And …
“So, as you know, our Model 3 has a permanent
magnet machine now.
This is because for the specification of the
performance and efficiency, the permanent
magnet machine better solved our cost minimization
function, and it was optimal for the range
and performance target.”[2] - Konstantinos
Laskaris
Auto industry expert and engineer, Sandy Munro,
said that Tesla’s motors are “magic.”[3]
He cites the magnet design in the motor as
one of the reasons for that.
You can see there's 4 stripes
Each one is a different magnet and each one has got polarity pointing in a different direction.
You're turning them this way and that way.
But you're also turning them radially as well.
It's kind of complicated ... and ...
the different ways of turning it will give you different power outputs
This is a science all by itself.
Tesla has glued together a series of magnets
into a specific pattern, known as a Halbach
array, that shapes the magnetic field to do
exactly what they want it to do.
Essentially you can make the magnetic field
on one side of the array almost twice as strong
as normal, while on the other side there’s
virtually no magnetic field.
Deciphering how and why Tesla is arranging
the magnets in this way is another story.
But the big thing is that I can't reverse engineer this damn thing.
Every twist and every turn and little differences ... little nuances ...
The only way you can find out about it is if you're there when they glue them together.
Sandy Munro also pointed out how much smaller,
cheaper, and more efficient these motors are
than the competition.
The Tesla Model 3 motor is estimated to cost
$754 at 46.1kg, BMW i3 is $841 at 48.37kg,
and Chevy Bolt is $836 at 51.49kg.
Not only is it lighter and cheaper, but it
also has much better torque and performance.
The heaviest, most expensive, and probably
most important piece of the puzzle is an EV’s
battery pack.
This is one area where Tesla has had a significant
lead for some time.
And not just in the battery pack design itself,
but also the cell chemistry and performance,
as well as production capacity needed to build
EVs at scale.
Elon Musk and J.B.
Straubel spoke about the need to build the
Gigafactory in Nevada at the recent shareholders
meeting.
We did the quick math and and looked at ... okay ... we're going to build ... you know ... so many
hundred thousand cars per year and this many kilowatt hours per car ...
Therefore, therefore ... you know ...
35 gigawatt hours of cells per year.
And 
to give a sense of scale for Tesla’s battery
manufacturing capacity, the Gigafactory currently
makes as many batteries as every other EV
manufacturer combined.
In the next year or two the Gigafactory is
expected to hit 35 gWh of batteries per year.[4]
We have about 35 gigawatt hours of capacity potential at Giga right now.
And then we're about 70 or 80 percent of that capacity has been realized.
I think there was a bit of confusion earlier this year because...
Panasonic had said there's 35 ... there's technically yes, but there's not at max capacity yet.
There will be by the end of this year or early next.
Other EV makers are ramping up their own Gigafactories
too, like BYD in China[5] and others.
But again, Tesla is also building another
factory in China right now and is set to announce
a new Europe factory too.
Tesla’s current battery cells and pack are
recognized as one of the best battery systems
in the world.
According to one expert:
“This is the best, most advanced large-scale
lithium battery ever produced on the planet
and is years ahead of the anything currently
in work.”[6] - Jack Rickard
And Tesla isn’t standing still.
They’re pouring R&D money into the next
generation of batteries, as I covered in my
Tesla & Maxwell video.
Tesla’s current battery technology, which
is considered one of the highest densities
available today, is believed to be around
250 Wh/kg.[7] With the new manufacturing techniques
acquired from Maxwell, they could potentially
add about 23% to Tesla’s current battery
density with room to double it.
This will lead to vehicles with significantly
more range.
You’d be pushing Tesla Model 3’s to something
closer to 400 miles per charge.
We’re still waiting for the big drivetrain
and battery investor day that Tesla has promised.
In the last shareholder meeting, Elon said
it’s looking to happen in early 2020, so
we’ll get a glimpse then of what’s to
come.
This one can’t be undersold no matter how
you look at it.
One of the biggest things EV detractors hold
up is the lack of good EV charging infrastructure.
This is something that Tesla took into consideration
from the beginning of the company and is why
they build their own charging network.
As of right now, Tesla has over 14,000 Superchargers
at 1,600 Supercharger stations around the
world[8] ... and they’re not slowing down
adding more.
And these are fast charging stations where
you can usually get most of the charge you
need in about 30 minutes.
Elon has talked about how important a thorough
charging infrastructure and service locations
are for sales.
So you really want to have superchargers and service centers, are the absolute key to sales.
And uh ...
And we can really map our sales to
Basically people are just like sensible
They're like ... uh ... you need to be able to service your car ... and you need to be able to travel conveniently on long distance routes.
And so wherever we have that our sales are good.
Compare the number of Tesla Superchargers
in the U.S. to other available fast chargers
and the difference is stark.
Tesla accounts for 57% of the fast chargers
available.[9] The next largest network is
EVgo with 20%.
And even though Tesla has offered other car
makers access to their network, nobody has
taken them up on the offer, which is why Morgan
Stanley has referred to the Superchargers
as a competitive moat.[10] No other car manufacturer
builds and owns their own, extensive charging
infrastructure, which means those companies
are dependent on third parties to fill in
the gaps.
Tesla building out their own charging network
has taken the full owner’s experience into
account; not just the sale of the car.
Until other manufacturer’s get more involved
with charging, this is one area that’s going
to hold them back.
Tesla has been on the path to full autonomous
driving for some time now, but until the Tesla
autonomy investor day event, I don’t think
many people realized how close they may be.
Tesla has designed and built their own custom
full self-driving computer, which is now shipping
in cars they’re making today.[11] And they’re
already underway on designing the next-generation
self-driving chip that comes next.
Unlike their autonomous car rivals, Tesla
has over 400,000 cars on the road (nearing
500,000) with the full sensor suite, which
includes 8 cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors,
GPS, and radar.
Their competitors are in the thousands.
And when it comes to winning the machine learning
and autonomous race, data is the key.
The amount of data Tesla is collecting is
immense and dwarfs their competition, we’re
talking about over 1 billion miles logged
with Autopilot.
The benefits to Tesla’s approach is that
as they make incremental improvements to autopilot
and self driving, they can roll individual
features out to their customers to start using,
which in turn feeds more data into their machine
learning models to achieve full self driving.
No other car maker is anywhere close to this
level of autonomy, which changes the whole
dynamic of cost of ownership when it comes
to a Tesla.
As Elon put it in a recent interview on Lex
Fridman’s Artificial Intelligence podcast:
“Buying a car today is an investment into
the future.
I think the most profound thing is that if
you buy a Tesla today, I believe you are buying
an appreciating asset — not a depreciating
asset.”
And the final advantage that I’d call out
is Elon himself.
This one could be viewed as a double-edged
sword, but I think it’s far more of a pro
than a con.
Having a charismatic and visionary CEO leading
a company can not only push the company to
achieve great things, but it helps to get
more attention and mindshare from the public.
Elon’s tweets, good and bad, get a lot of
media attention, which is free publicity for
the company.
When Elon speaks, people pay attention, which
is something a lot of companies would kill
for.
How many people do you think would recognize
names like Jim Hackett, Harare's Kruger, Herbert
Diess, or Michael Manley?
They’re all CEOs of car companies, but they
don’t garner anywhere near the level of
attention that Elon gets.
Elon isn’t just leading the EV revolution,
he’s leading a highly successful space flight
company, and another that’s boring tunnels
to improve mass transit.
He’s capturing the imagination of millions
of people, talking to them directly on social
media, and turning them into paying customers.
So those are the five big reasons that I think
give Tesla the competitive advantage.
Not only today, but for years to come.
There’s a first mover advantage that applies
to all of those.
The lead they have in motors, batteries, EV
charging, autonomous driving, and leadership
is going to be extremely difficult for competitors
to overtake.
And Tesla isn’t standing still.
They’re continuing to push and out-innovate
the competition, which will keep them several
steps ahead of the competition for years to
come.
So what do you think?
Did I miss any big advantages?
Jump into the comments and let me know what
you think.
And if you liked this video, be sure to give
it a thumbs up and share with your friends
because it really helps the channel.
There are some other ways you can support
the channel too.
Check out my SFSF Shop for some cool Tesla,
Space X, science, and Undecided shirts.
There’s also other links in the description
for some great Tesla accessories and discounts.
And as always, an extra big thank you to all
of my Patreon supporters.
As well as a big welcome to my new supporter + member, Ryan Collins.
Your support is really helping to make these
videos possible.
Be sure to check out my Patreon page for additional
details about joining the crew.
And if you haven’t already, consider subscribing
and hitting the notification bell to get alerts
when I post a new video.
And as always, thanks so much for watching,
I’ll see you in the next one.
