Nathalie Sanderson
www.greenerideal.com
There are just six parts of a Tesla Model S that must be regularly replaced: the four tires plus the two wiper blades.
The all-electric sedan made in California doesn’t need the gamut of moving parts found in internal combustion engines. That means no valves, camshafts, crankshaft, cylinders or ignition system. There aren’t any connecting rods, clutches or gears, either, nor any need for belts and pulleys, oil filters, spark plugs, mufflers, oxygen sensors or air filters. The list goes on.
It’s a little known feature of all battery electric vehicles: simplicity of design and ultralight maintenance. Car owners are estimated to spend half as much on the care of electric vehicles compared to their dinosaur juice-sipping counterparts, according to the Center for Automotive Research. Why is there such a gap?
Internal combustion engines are inherently complex. They require hundreds and, lately, thousands of specialized components to safely convert fossil fuels into motion via cycles of controlled explosions. And the more ‘modern’ traditional cars get, the more complicated their guts are, and the less friendly to DIY repairs.
Most drivers have grown accustomed to regular oil changes, filter switches, radiator flushes, exhaust system replacements and smog checks. These habits were carefully cultivated by generations of car owners to help the high-maintenance gas engine do its job.
Electric vehicles (EVs), in stark contrast, emphasize self-reliance. The design of an electric propulsion system is elegantly simple, pared down to the basics: a propulsion motor, radiator fans, speed controller fans and, sometimes, a coolant pump. Cars made by Tesla Motors have but one moving part: the rotor. Fewer electronic components are needed, and with regenerative braking, the brake pads in EVs last many times longer than those in traditional cars.
Read more
www.greenerideal.com
There are just six parts of a Tesla Model S that must be regularly replaced: the four tires plus the two wiper blades.
The all-electric sedan made in California doesn’t need the gamut of moving parts found in internal combustion engines. That means no valves, camshafts, crankshaft, cylinders or ignition system. There aren’t any connecting rods, clutches or gears, either, nor any need for belts and pulleys, oil filters, spark plugs, mufflers, oxygen sensors or air filters. The list goes on.
It’s a little known feature of all battery electric vehicles: simplicity of design and ultralight maintenance. Car owners are estimated to spend half as much on the care of electric vehicles compared to their dinosaur juice-sipping counterparts, according to the Center for Automotive Research. Why is there such a gap?
Internal combustion engines are inherently complex. They require hundreds and, lately, thousands of specialized components to safely convert fossil fuels into motion via cycles of controlled explosions. And the more ‘modern’ traditional cars get, the more complicated their guts are, and the less friendly to DIY repairs.
Most drivers have grown accustomed to regular oil changes, filter switches, radiator flushes, exhaust system replacements and smog checks. These habits were carefully cultivated by generations of car owners to help the high-maintenance gas engine do its job.
Electric vehicles (EVs), in stark contrast, emphasize self-reliance. The design of an electric propulsion system is elegantly simple, pared down to the basics: a propulsion motor, radiator fans, speed controller fans and, sometimes, a coolant pump. Cars made by Tesla Motors have but one moving part: the rotor. Fewer electronic components are needed, and with regenerative braking, the brake pads in EVs last many times longer than those in traditional cars.
Read more