特斯拉（Tesla）邀请了汽车和驾驶员记者到特斯拉工厂（Tesla Factory），记者了解到，有很多事情可以最大程度地提高电动汽车的效率。Car and Driverrecently shared what they learned in a report, “Tesla Tells Us How It Keeps Beating Nearly Everyone in the Range Game.” The article detailed the engineering responsible for the increasing range of the Model S without changing the battery pack.

“The current Tesla Model S Long Range Plus has an EPA range of 402 miles,” says Roberto Baldwin, senior editor,Car and Driver. “That’s an 87-mile increase from when the 100.0-kWh version of the vehicle was introduced in 2016.”

当然，电池的功率密度至关重要，特斯拉在这里引起了很多关注。但是，为了充分利用可用的功率，车辆的效率非常重要：

“但同样，这并不全是电池；鲍德温说：“导致402英里范围从100.0 kWh包装的车辆的效率需要分布在整个车辆上。”

Improve motor efficiency to improve range

A large part of Tesla’s success is the decision to custom-build everything from the motor and battery pack, to other components. “This do-it-yourself approach allows Tesla to continually tweak those parts to maximize their efficiency,” continues Baldwin.

提高动力训练的效率已导致范围增长。Tesla在Model S中的电动机现在的效率为90％，高于首次可用时的80％。特斯拉指出，运动效率的8％至10％改善范围增长了15％至18％。

MATLAB models where the energy is flowing

A key to increasing efficiency across the power train is understanding where the power goes. Tesla shared they have developed MATLAB models for this.

“A Tesla engineer told us that the company has spent the past 10 years building MATLAB models of where all the energy is flowing,” says Baldwin. “From that, it’s determined where the vehicles experience losses due to inefficiencies. The team then goes in and continually tweaks the hardware to increase efficiency. Additional secondary improvements can be pushed via over-the-air updates.”

Updates improve efficiency for vehicles already on the road, too

The team continually tweaks the hardware to increase efficiency. Tesla employs over-the-air updates to update vehicles’ software and push the improvements to cars already on the road.

“All of this tweaking and tinkering, trying to squeeze every last bit of energy out components, requires many of the elements used in the vehicle to be built in-house,” says Baldwin. “In other words, Tesla’s efficiencies require being Tesla built. That also extends to keeping those cars on the road.”

MATLAB models of where all the energy is flowing