Could Tesla Buy Pre-built Compact Cars For $17,000, And Add The Electric Powertrain?
17,000, and add the electric powertrain? So instead of either one struggling, Tesla should either provide battery packs to other manufacturers, like in the RAV4 EV and Smart EV. Or, since they want tech features like the screen and autopilot, they could simply sell pre-built compact cars. I am well aware that they tried this before with the Roadster 1. However, this time would be different. They could spend a good deal of time (3-6 months??) optimizing the conversion. So long as the battery can be bolted to the bottom of the car, and can be made light enough, there is no real problem with this. 22,500 before any rebates. No one really understands how perfectly married Tesla's designs are with their electric drivetrain and batteries. They are designed for max range and performance. Your theory pretty much throws that out the window so I am not sure how relevant it is.
Not to mention giving another manufacturer a perfect roadmap for how to convert their ICE vehicles to electric doesn't sound like a great plan (for Tesla). That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works. You can't just bolt on an electric powertrain to an existing design and call it a day. Tesla mentioned they're currently battery constrained for their own cars (whether true or not, battery output is something all manufacturers are having a hard time with). 20-25k range once it's feasible for them to do so. Sure it is, just ask GM! Read into the history of the original roadster. It was originally intended to be in a stock lotus body, but they ended up redesigning the majority due to various things that don鈥檛 work in a body designed for an engine. Read into the history of the original roadster. 90% of replies did not even read the OP.
If I recall only 7% of the car is stock lotus. Like the windshield and the steering wheel and roof. Most everything else is custom. Safety makes this a non-starter. Economy cars are designed with structural safety that matches their original specification. They're designed to crumple with and around an engine, and absorb a certain amount of energy given that the car is a certain weight. If you drop a battery into it, you're changing the structure of the car and adding a lot more weight. The safety engineering becomes obsolete for that drivetrain configuration. That means you need to re-engineer the surrounding structure and now it's much easier to just build a new car. This is essentially what happened with the Lotus Elise when Tesla was just starting. They expected to drop a battery into it and go. The car ended up needing a completely new structure, different suspension to handle the weight, better braking systems and tires again due to weight. In the end only something like 10% of the original car remained.
Technically they could. In reality they will never do that. It's very costly and end up with a crap EV. 17k, it won't save them anything, it will likely cost more. Tesla is battery limited anyhow, so your idea would not help them. Lol you should watch rich rebuilds latest video about converting a ice to ev with Tesla motor. It takes a lot to retrofit a car. Look up the joe Rohan Rogan podcast where Elon talks about using widebody Lotus cars. Much easier to build the car around the battery than to build the battery around an existing car. I think they are actually considering something similar for their service vehicles. Like using a ford transit or something. Can鈥檛 find the article. Maybe it was on a cal or podcast. But to make a legit good car that is safe and profitable, I can鈥檛 imagine it鈥檚 that easy. Also i would assume if it was that easy other companies would have already done it. ICE cars aren鈥檛 as aerodynamic as those designed by Tesla.
