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rouse42 @ Apr 16th 2008 2:12PM
pretty crazy that x-trac couldnt get a tranny to work. being such a big racing company.
i understand that the electric motor is at full torque when they change gears. but you would figure that with x-trac's racing background they could of come up with something.
unless its just not possible to build a multispeed tranny with such a powerful electric motor in a performance car.
jake @ Apr 16th 2008 9:13PM
x-trac, Magna, Ricardo (who made transmission for veyron, ford gt) were tried by Tesla. I mean these aren't second rate transmission builders, they all have lots of experience and reputation, but somehow it didn't work out.
I'm hoping maybe in the future, when Tesla actually gets going on the sales, recovering the initial development costs and start making profit, then maybe they should have another go at the 2 speed. The only thing holding them back from a higher top speed is the single speed transmission. It's probably harder to make one given the instant torque and high peak rpm for Tesla's motor, but I don't think it's an engineering impossibility to build a 2 or more speed transmission for a high performance EV.