Elon: Tesla Cybertruck to come with four motors

Tesla's Cybertruck is going to be quite the truck. Not only is it rumored to come with FSD hardware 4.0 and the new MCU 3 that's starting to appear in Model Y cars, but Elon has now said that it will also come in a four motor variant.

A render of Tesla's Cybertruck with side mirros

Elon took to Twitter to announce that the initial production of the Cybertruck will be a four motor version. It will give Tesla the ability to have independent control of each individual wheel.

Each wheel having its own independent motor is a huge deal. The advantages of having independent control of each wheel can be compared to the advantages of a dual motor Tesla compared to a single engine AWD car.

With dual motors you gain faster response times, better efficiency and ultimately, better control of the vehicle.

In an ideal world, all vehicles would have independent control of each wheel. Up until now ICE cars weren't able to do that, but for an EV it's possible due to its small and most cost effective motors.

Track control will be improved by reducing response times. It will give Tesla a lot of flexibility that hasn't been allowed before.

By having individual motors, which were all but impossible in ICE cars, Tesla will be able to not only spin each one individually, but spin them at different rates or even in opposite directions.

All vehicles have what's called a rear differential that allows wheels that are connected to each other to spin at different speeds, something that is necessary when taking a turn. During a turn, the outside wheel will need to travel a longer distance than the inside wheel.

The differential is an ingenious idea and one that needed to be solved with the advent of cars. The video below shows how a differential works:

However, by having a motor at each wheel, Tesla is essentially getting the need to have a differential since they'll be able to spin each wheel at different speeds directly.

For anyone that has ever played with a hoverboard or an RC car that has independent control of its wheels, they know what happens when you make the left wheels move in the opposite direction of the right wheels. This won't cause the car to turn, but instead it will essentially spin in place.

That's the flexibility Tesla is gaining here. Tesla will gain a lot of control with individual motors and they may even use it to allow the car to take extremely tight turns.

Tesla removed pricing for the Cybertruck on its website earlier this year, and it's possible that Tesla is rethinking which options they'll offer in terms of motors. The rumor is that Tesla will drop the single motor and tri-motor variants and instead of a dual motor and quad motor version.

I'd also expect Tesla to offer future Model S and Model X, and the new Roadster in four motor variants as well.

Over the course of this year we have learned a lot about the new Cybertruck. We even got a look at it's massive windshield coming out of Tesla's glass center. The Cybertruck will likely be the first vehicle with Tesla's AP4 hardware and offer rear-wheel turning. Tesla has also decided to add side mirrors to the truck, although allow them to be easily removable by the owner.

Earlier this year we also had a potential first peak into the Cybertruck's user interface.

The four motor variant will likely be the top of the line Cybertruck and Tesla will start producing these vehicles first, which is currently scheduled to start in late 2022.

Elon Musk has said that he will provide an update for Tesla's roadmap during Tesla's next financial results. We expect to have an update for Cybertruck production during that time.

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Musk Teases New Model for Early 2025 That Will Use a Mix of Next-Gen and Current Platforms

“We have updated our future vehicle line-up to accelerate the launch of new models ahead of our previously communicated start of production in the second half of 2025”. This was one of the key sentences that were part of Tesla’s deck shared on Tuesday directly before its financial results.

Since Reuters’ report a few weeks ago saying Tesla had “scrapped” the highly expected cheaper model— which Elon quickly denied on X —retail and institutional shareholders started asking for more details on Tesla’s product roadmap for 2024 and beyond.

In the earnings conference call, Elon Musk reiterated that Tesla expects to launch the next model in “early 2025, if not late this year”.

“We've updated our future vehicle lineup to accelerate the launch of new models ahead of previously mentioned start of production in the second half of 2025. So, we expect it to be more like the early 2025, if not late this year. “

Over concerns of temporary production halts to update the factories for these new models, Musk said that Tesla will produce new models with certain aspects from their next-generation platform and current models. This will reduce the number of changes needed on production lines and allow Tesla not only to ramp up production faster but also to get the vehicles to market quicker.

Model Y Redesign

Tesla appears to hit that their next-gen vehicle will be less “next-gen” than they were initially aiming for, but to get a new vehicle out the door by late 2024, the process would already have to be in motion. Tesla may likely be referring to the redesigned Model Y, which is expected to reuse many parts from the new Model 3. Earlier this year, Tesla said that the redesigned Model Y will not be released this year, so it makes sense that they’re looking to speed up that production.

Tesla CEO concluded by saying that these measures will allow Tesla to reach a capacity of over 3 million units. Tesla produced 1.84 million vehicles in 2023. However, this year they’re ramping up Cybertruck production and introduced the new Model 3 into new markets.

And we think this should allow us to get to over 3 million vehicles of capacity when realized to the full extent.

Tesla reported on Tuesday its earnings results followed by a conference call where it teased its upcoming Robotaxi and its next-generation platform saying its “purpose-built Robotaxi product will continue to pursue a revolutionary ‘unboxed’ manufacturing strategy”.

Earlier in the day, Tesla announced the new Performance variant of its sedan Model 3 with deliveries in the United States starting already next month. The new version starts at $45,490 (after applying the $7,500 Federal EV tax credit) and goes from 0 to 60mph in 2.9 seconds.

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Tesla on FSD: Close to License Deal With Major Automaker, Announces Miles Driven on FSD v12

On Tuesday Tesla reported its earnings results followed by a conference call that brought several updates on the company’s roadmap for future vehicles, autonomous driving, Optimus and much more.

While answering a question from Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney about updates on the licensing of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, Elon Musk said they’re talking to one major auto manufacturer and there’s “a good chance” the company signs the first deal before year-end. However, he went on to say that it would probably be three years before the necessary changes are integrated into the car.

I think we have a good chance we do sign a deal this year

Brings Benefits to Tesla

The technology would require other automakers to start using the same cameras and hardware as Tesla, meaning that Tesla may not only generate money from licensing FSD but also from selling the hardware itself. However, there would be other benefits as well. When licensing FSD, Tesla would likely own the data gathered with the system well, further helping them with data and edge cases that need to be solved to reach full autonomy.

people don't understand all cars will need to be smart cars… Once that becomes obvious, I think licensing becomes not optional.

Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja commented pointing out that future partners “take a lot of time in their product life cycle” resulting in a gap between the deal signing and the arrival in the market of Tesla’s FSD software.

Miles Driven With FSD

On the conference call, Musk added that Tesla now has over 300 million miles that have been driven with FSD v12 since it was launched just last month. He added that it's becoming “very clear that the vision-based approach with end-to-end neural networks is the right solution for scalable autonomy”.

Tesla said it will continue to increase its “core AI infrastructure capacity in the coming months” adding that in the first quarter, it completed the transition to hardware 4.0 with China now receiving the upgraded FSD computer and cameras.

Over the weekend, Tesla reduced the price of FSD dropping it from $12,000 to $8,000 for customers in the United States and from CA$16,000 to CA$11,000 in Canada.

Earlier this month, Tesla implemented a 50% price reduction for FSD subscriptions in the U.S. and introduced the subscription model in Canada at a great value of CA$99 per month.

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