Really interesting topic. For those interested I highly recommend the Tesla Model Y teardown videos from Sandy Munro of Munro & Associates. He is a really great engineer who used to be one of the Heads of Manufacturing at Ford among lots of other positions. His company does pretty much everything, from tearing down vehicles to, redesigning products for manufacturing, to building whole factories. He worked on the EV1 as well.<p>In his videos he takes apart a Model Y step by step and they analyses what it would cost to make with very detailed models:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkiDlGyJnprdFftxAZ85a5Rp1LlET4Wbr" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkiDlGyJnprdFftxAZ85a...</a><p>In terms of efficiency, one of the highlights of the Model Y is the heatpump. Having a Heatpump itself is not new, other EV had it, but not Teslas. Tesla internally designed and built a new Heatpump that improves efficiency quite a bit, and it is credited with making Model Y get almost Model 3 range even while being bigger. Elon even said he had one of those heatpumps in his bedroom because its one of the best things any of his companies have ever done. Sandy Munro confirms that he has never seen that in all the heatpumps they have seen.<p>There are lots of good information on pretty much everything including electronics as well, its well worth watching.
><i>And just like the Model 3s, Model Ys that were produced after June 2020 exhibited a significant improvement in efficiency</i><p>Won't the MPGe values be higher for these vehicles because they are being driven exclusively during summer months so far, when batteries are less efficient in the winter months?
As measured in MPGe. I had to look it up.<p>Miles per gallon gasoline equivalent
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_per_gallon_gasoline_equivalent" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_per_gallon_gasoline_equi...</a><p>It's probably a fine metric.<p>Would a total cost per mile (projected over lifetime) would be more comprehensive?
If the efficiency gains vary by production year, that implies it's hardware improvements, as opposed to software tweaks (which would be rolled out fleet-wide regardless of year). I wonder what goes into that experience curve effect?
Comparative data across the Tesla fleet, by model and production years, is so interesting!<p>I love the Tesla approach to continuous improvement, and the Nikola app seems really cool!