I am an under graduate in Electrical engineering and I'm doing a project on electric vehicle. I learned that Tesla Model S use two separate motors for two wheels. Does that mean it uses an electronic differential? I intend to use an electronic differential for my project. My question is if that is feasible due to technical and safety reasons? Will I have to abandon my project??

Thank you.


Teslas with one motor per wheel do not use a differential at all, such as the Roadster v2 (which has a motor for each rear wheel) but for those that have one motor per axle, they use a fairly normal open differential. Yes, it is electronic rather than a limited slip diff, but this is not because it is an EV - it's just relatively common these days.

So yes, it is feasible.

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    An electronic differential is more of a ‘logical’ device rather than a physical component - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_differential. Presumably the Tesla will have such logic built into its drive system. – HandyHowie Dec 30 '19 at 19:25
  • Yes, it's through braking at each wheel – Rory Alsop Dec 30 '19 at 19:26
  • I don’t think it involves braking, it just alters the power to each motor to give equal torque when cornering. – HandyHowie Dec 30 '19 at 19:27
  • @HandyHowie Hmmm - I thought that was only for those with one motor per wheel. – Rory Alsop Dec 30 '19 at 19:51
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    @HandyHowie obviously you have not seen abs or torque control systems in action then or you don’t know how they work. – Solar Mike Dec 31 '19 at 12:03

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