Tesla May Have Sold Prototypes As Production Cars, Says Gruber Motors
Mar 10, 2021 at 9:51am ET
++
That’s one of the conclusions Pete Gruber makes analyzing how Teslas age.
Pete Gruber and his team at Gruber Motor Company started an analysis on how Tesla vehicles age. Beginning with the Roadster and going to the Model S, Gruber came to very enlightening conclusions, some of which we have been warning for quite a while. The first and most interesting one is that Tesla pushed prototypes into the field as if they were production vehicles.
The engineer even named a few examples that base his conclusion. The side scoops were meant to keep the power electronics module cooled, but it did not work. To fix that, Tesla installed a 12V DC fan anywhere it could fit. That ended up being behind the rear wheels, in a very low position, where it picks up “dirt, dust, leaves, and debris.” The practical result is the need to clean the power electronics module every year.