Cooling and Lubrication Efforts of Tesla Drive Units and Tesla’s Perspective of Future Electric Vehicle Lubricant Development
Lubricant formulation design, lubrication design, and cooling architecture are critical for drive unit (electric motor and gearbox) performance and durability. OEMs are currently adopting various mechanical designs for electric motor cooling and gearbox lubrication. It is seemingly a popular option to push for lower and lower fluid viscosity and cost-effective raw materials to further achieve cooling efficiency, energy efficiency, and build cost while it is not necessarily lowering overall system cost especially factoring the vehicle lifetime performance, maintenance, and overall energy cost. Based on one of Tesla’s drive unit designs, the author breaks down Tesla’s approach on solving the complexity of electric vehicle lubrication and lubricant design, in terms of optimal fluid design, viscosity tuning, and meeting durability requirements, while gaining system level cost. Energy efficiency breakdown of the drive unit is discussed, as it is closely related to lubricant and lubrication design, along with existing challenges which can be positively tackled by lubrication. In addition, the author discusses Tesla’s perspective on the focus of future electric vehicle lubricant development and innovative lubrication strategy, to further improve energy efficiency and system durability.
