Elon Musk Praises Team Behind Innovative Tesla Model Y Heat Pump
The new Tesla Model Y uses a new heat pump to increase its efficiency in colder weather, and now CEO Elon Musk is praising the team that produced this new feature.
The Model Y began deliveries to excited customers earlier this month, and since then we’ve been hearing great things about the new electric SUV. Social media has also blown up with customers and websites posting videos, a few of which you can find here.
We’ve already reported on this new heat pump, but now Musk has commented on the feature. Firstly, the manual explains the pump in full below:
“Model Y uses a heat pump to maximize efficiency; therefore, your air conditioning compressor and external fan may run and make noise even when the outside temperature is cold and your vehicle is heating or supercharging.”
This device is used to transfer heat from certain sources within the car to a thermal reservoir. This heat can then be used to heat other devices, such as climate control and the battery, also within the car. The Model 3 isn’t equipped with such a thing, but the Model Y will use it to increase its battery life.
Elon’s comments were posted on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1242229469017862145
“Model Y heat pump is some of the best engineering I’ve seen in a while. Team did next-level work,” he says. He also gave us more detail on the design of the pump.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1242245870650716160
“PCB design techniques applied to create a heat exchanger that is physically impossible by normal means. Heat pump also has a local heating loop to spool up fast & extend usable temperature range. Octavalve is pretty special too. Team did great work. No credit to me.”
One of our favourite Tesla YouTubers, DÆrik, performed a teardown on the front of his car to uncover the new feature. You can watch that below.
