Tesla Roadster: A 10,000 Nm Scam

On November 17, 2017, the 15th Guangzhou Auto Show opened at the Guangzhou Pazhou Exhibition Center. We, a group of eight people, came to Guangzhou to release the latest new car information to everyone as soon as possible.

But just as I was exhausted and started my journey back, I took out my phone and saw some Weibo posts like this.

The previous fatigue was swept away, and my mood at this moment was like this:

10,000 Nm of torque, are you kidding me? (I counted it three times to confirm it was this number)

After I got home, I immediately found the press conference video and confirmed this.

(Please forgive my poor image quality. I lowered the image quality to see the key information quickly.)

You know, before this, the data king Bugatti Chiron had "only" 1500N·m of torque.

The 99A2 main battle tank has "only" 5500N·m of torque.

Regardless of whether the tires can handle it, this is a huge leap in the history of automobiles! ! ! ! The data of mass-produced cars has been increased by nearly 10 times, which can be called a technological explosion.

However, when I thought about it carefully, I felt that things were far from that simple.

With such a big technological advancement, why didn’t we see any relevant information before? You know, for a relatively “boastful” company, Tesla’s confidentiality work is far from being that good. So, I need to investigate the relevant data of this “Roadster” in depth.

However, when I opened Tesla's official website, a line of data caught my eye.

Wheel Tourque? ? ? ! ! !

That day, Xiao Ming and Xiao Hong walked side by side. Under the reflection of the setting sun, they were two beautiful figures.

"My father told us to get married early. Although I've only known you for a short time, I think you're pretty good." Xiaohong said while pinching the corner of her clothes.

"Ah, uncle is so anxious? Well, then we can only do as he wishes." Although his words were full of compromise, Xiao Ming was still very honest in his heart.

"Did uncle say anything else? What are the requirements for marriage?"

"I don't have too many requirements. You just have to be responsible for buying a house, and then our family will buy a car. The most important thing is that you have to be nice to me!" Xiaohong's eyes flashed with seriousness.

"Honghong," Xiao Ming grabbed his hand, "Why are we together? To create the future! Houses and other things are all virtual. Although I am worth 1 billion, I will not do this. We should use the money in better places." Xiao Ming looked into the distance through Xiao Hong's shoulder, his determined gaze never changed.

However, Xiao Hong didn't hear anything after "1 billion". "Damn, you are so rich, what is this 1 billion, RMB? US dollars? It can't be British pounds!!!"

"Zimbabwean dollar, you've never heard of it! Let me tell you... Hey, Xiaohong, where are you going?"

From that day on, Xiao Ming lived a happy single life.

It turns out that Tesla played a word game with us: it replaced the concept, and replaced the engine-end torque that we generally think of with wheel torque.

Please allow me to say something to Tesla with deep affection: You are so unfair!

Here I will explain to you what torque and wheel torque mean.

The torque we generally refer to is the output torque at the engine end. Simply put, it is the explosive power of the engine, which is the force of the piston pushing the crankshaft.

The wheel torque is the traction force that is ultimately transmitted to the road through the engine, gearbox, tires, etc.

Here are a few simple formulas for your reference:

Wheel torque = engine output torque x transmission reduction ratio

Transmission reduction ratio = gearbox reduction ratio x main reduction gear reduction ratio on the front and rear differential cases

Automatic transmission also requires multiples of the torque converter. From the above formula, you can see that they are all multiplied by this and that. The final wheel torque is very large.

It is said that speaking facts and making sense requires data support, so let us use the data to speak.

Take Tesla's previous acceleration champion: Tesla MODEL S P100D as a comparison object

First put the formula:

Wheel torque = wheel driving force x tire radius

Wheel driving force = vehicle mass x acceleration

As can be seen from the figure above, the maximum acceleration G value of MODEL S P100D in the violent mode has exceeded 1.4 G. We take the integer 1.4 for calculation.

According to the data on Tesla's official website, the total weight of the vehicle is 2.1 tons, plus the weight of an adult male, which is 70 kg.

The tire size of the MODEL S P100D photographed by Autohome is 245/35 R21, and the tire radius is 35cm.

2170kg x 1.4 x 9.8m/s² x 0.35m=10420.34N·m

The official data of Tesla MODEL S P100D is 967N·m.

It turns out that the previous MODEL S P100D already had a "torque" of 10,000 Nm.

(The data is for reference only. There is no actual measurement of the acceleration G value and vehicle weight. The parameters are only for reference.)

Here comes another one, the most talked-about one in the internal combustion engine world: the Nissan GT-R that is second to none.

The actual acceleration G value measured by Autohome is around 1G, rounded to the integer of 1G.

The curb weight of the GT-R on Nissan's official website is 1785kg, which is still the same, assuming a driver weight of 70kg.

Autohome took a real look at the tire size. For ease of calculation, only the rear wheel data is used as a reference, 285/35 R20.

1855kg x 1 x 9.8m/s² x 0.35m=6362.65N·m.

The official data of Nissan GT-R is 652N·m.

(The data is for reference only. There is no actual measurement of the acceleration G value and vehicle weight. The parameters are only for reference.)

The torque difference between the two cars is more than 300, and the wheel torque difference is more than 4000. Oh, it turns out that in the wheel torque world, you all start with about 1000N·m.

Will this "skill" be learned by other car manufacturers, and will torque be advertised in "thousands" in the future? This precedent is not a good role model.

Yeah, that's Tesla.

So, is this 1.9-second 0-100-kilometer acceleration really fast? Has no car ever been able to do that before?

In fact, what makes me angry is not only the word game on this PPT, but also the ordering and payment method of Tesla's Roadster.

For this so-called founder version, you need to pay the full amount when you order the car! Listen carefully, it is a one-time full payment of 1.659 million (US$250,000 on the US official website). And there are no cars in stock yet, and the earliest delivery is expected to be in 2020. (The earliest here is a bit interesting, and friends who have ordered cars at 4S stores will know a little bit about it.)

The deposit for the regular version is 332,000 yuan (50,000 US dollars on the US official website).

Let's do the math. 50,000 dollars per person, how much is 10,000 people worth? 500 million dollars! This is much more impressive than the Civic, CR-V, etc.

You said that you need to place an order to buy a car, which is reasonable. However, there is only one exhibition car (now I only see the one at the press conference) and it cannot be mass-produced. I don’t know if there is a production line or how much production capacity there is. You have to pay a deposit first, and you have to wait for three years.

Let me make an irresponsible guess: Tesla is short of money.

Why do you say that? If you go to the official website now, you will see that Tesla is currently promoting a model called the Nearly Ready-to-Go Car.

What is a near-ready car? Why is Tesla pushing for near-ready cars now?

As the name suggests, the quasi-ready-to-car model is basically the same as the ready-to-car model. The official website says that you can enjoy the service of picking up the car within 14 days. In fact, you can think of it as Tesla's inventory model.

When Tesla was founded, two issues were identified:

1. Tesla chooses direct sales, orders are generated, and no inventory vehicles are generated.

2. Tesla does not place advertisements, which means that dealers need to pay for their own advertisements. (For example, the Tesla XX franchise stores you see all have their advertising expenses paid by the dealers themselves.)

First of all, we need to know one thing, that is, 4S stores don’t make much money from selling cars now, and often sell at a loss. Then you may ask: what do 4S stores eat? They must make money!

Yes, the majority of the money that 4S stores make comes from after-sales service. It is not an exaggeration to say that the after-sales service of a store supports the entire store. Tesla is quite special. There is no advertising subsidy for dealers, no maintenance, and a lot of subsequent after-sales expenses. It is difficult to maintain the operating costs of dealers just by selling cars. And what about Tesla's other after-sales services? Friends who have been there have experienced it.

And there is another problem with order production, that is, the production cycle and delivery cycle are longer than those of ordinary cars. This will lead to low customer satisfaction. Maybe customers are more responsive to the delivery time, or maybe Tesla thinks that keeping some inventory cars appropriately is also beneficial to sales. After all, as a "changing" car company, newcomers still have a lot to learn. So Tesla doesn't know when it started selling quasi-new cars. The practice of quasi-new cars is to improve efficiency and increase sales. Judging from the results, the effect is not bad. And this time, it has learned more "fine" and started to order cars in full directly. I can't say how this is in the United States, but in China, it really feels a bit like "illegal fundraising." Why do you say that? 500 million US dollars, by 2020, I tell you that because of production capacity problems, you can delay it for three to five months at will, and you have nothing to say. You ask the bank to borrow 500 million, and you try to delay it for three months?

You may ask: How could Tesla go bankrupt and run away with the money? Where could he go? Perhaps in the eyes of many people, the "Iron Man" of Silicon Valley is a person who challenges the limits of human technology. It is very easy for such a person to attract fans. However, challenging the limits requires capital, and Tesla has been on the verge of bankruptcy several times before. Who can guarantee that there will never be a next time?

Tesla now uses Panasonic batteries and Mercedes-Benz cars. Tesla's unique feature is battery management technology. However, this is not such an unattainable technology. For those century-old car manufacturers or those with accumulated technology, it is not difficult to be replaced or surpassed. As a pure "gasoline party", I really don't want Tesla to surpass the internal combustion engine; but as a car fan, I hope that a hundred flowers will bloom and a hundred schools of thought will contend.

The competition between gasoline and electric motors was unimaginable ten years ago. However, Tesla now has the flavor of "one against a thousand". I hope Tesla can face the problem and do things down to earth. Don't learn from some companies that sell cars first with PPT, then run away and get criticized.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.