Comment by torginus | Hacker News Reader

Comment by torginus | Hacker News Reader

Generally I think it's much more useful to link the orignial, rather than the churnalism article written about it.

https://cn.nikkei.com/industry/icar/56879-2024-10-09-09-00-2...

Although it's in Chinese, Google Translate can help you out.

The TLDR version is that BYD integrates many components of the electric drivetrain into a single sub-assembly, and shares said assembly between multiple vehicles to achieve volume cost savings.

Which is fine for bringing the costs down, but keep in mind their cars have zero repairability, which might be a concern, considering the engineers though the components aren't protected well enough agains water ingress.

Although, I admit my skepticism might be unfounded. I've owned the same car for close to a decade, and I haven't replaced anything besides consumables and fluids.

> The TLDR version is that BYD integrates many components of the electric drivetrain into a single sub-assembly, and shares said assembly between multiple vehicles to achieve volume cost savings.

GM has been doing the same: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultium

How can multiple vehicles share a drivetrain?

What do you mean? Multiple vehicles can use the same electric motor and battery, exactly the same as ICE vehicles share the same engines across different model lines.

It was meant to say that multiple vehicles share the same drivetrain model, not the same unit.

I find your reply even more confusing than the question :P

They use the same design of part in multiple different models of vehicle instead of designing a new one with small differences

It means multiple models share the same design and components. It doesn't mean multiple individual cars share literally the same gears and whatnot.

From the (translated) article:

One of the characteristics of ATTO3 is the promotion of component integration. In the electric drive device "E-Axle", in addition to the motor, inverter, and reducer, a total of 8 components such as the on-board charger and DC-DC converter (DC voltage converter) are integrated. This can reduce component costs and reduce weight.

Timeshare.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type–token_distinction :)

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