Here in the UK we have plenty of 4 by 4s on the road. From Range Rovers to smaller Audi and customers love them. When can we expect an AWD Tesla Model 3?
All-wheel-drive is a useful feature to have in wet, cold and snowy climates. – Like the UK.
In general, it’s kind of overkill in regions with a moderate climate and yet, Tesla made it standard for all its Model S and Model X vehicles.
Tesla achieves all-wheel-drive through having two electric motors, one on each axle, which enables them to have a greater control on the power output per wheel and optimize each motor for different uses.
Ultimately, it can result in a greater range with the same energy capacity thanks to a better efficiency, like it did when it was introduced to Model S. Of course, it also results in a greater power output for quicker acceleration.
The same thing is expected to happen with Model 3.
Now we get to see a great image of the dual motor configuration of Tesla’s latest electric vehicle thanks to some code sleuthing by Eaer from /r/teslamotors on the latest update of the design studio:
It confirms that like Model S, the Model 3’s front motor is much smaller and therefore, it’s likely going to have a lower power output.
Tesla says that the dual motor all-wheel-drive Model 3 will be available starting in “Spring 2018”.
We also have reports that Tesla are testing 4 Wheel Drive options on a select test fleet. How do we know? From the VINs. The Model 3 VINs are now in the 8,000s, but they are also telling us another interesting thing.
As shown by the Model 3 VIN decoder, the 8th digit represents the type of powertrain and the number 2 means a dual motor.
None had been discovered until now. We now know that 19 Model 3 vehicles with dual motor were registered by Tesla with NHTSA in the latest batch of new VINS recorded Jan 20th.
Spring is rather general phrase and Tesla have not been known to stick to schedules. It makes sense since Tesla has been going for higher margin vehicles first with the Long Range battery pack and the dual motor option would be the next logical step in keeping the price high while volume is constrained strategy.
