A YouTuber has dived deep into the dual motor logic hidden behind when a Tesla EV actually goes into all-wheel drive (AWD).
William from Out of Spec Raoming wanted to find out when AWD actually kicks in, as most tend to have front-wheel or rear-wheel drive running as standard.
This test aimed to find out how often it went into all-wheel drive, and when exactly it was activated.
In the opening, William said many people would be surprised as to when the EVs actually went fully into all-wheel drive.
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All Tesla electric cars are biased towards the rear wheels
In the opening segment, the YouTuber explained that all Tesla EVs are biased towards the rear-wheel.
It’s typical of performance cars or fast cars, with the front motor being an induction motor.
If it needs more traction or propulsion, it activates the front motor for more power.
A special gadget inside the EV would detect when the car had activated AWD and was out of RWD.
This showed the rear output and the front output of the motors to reveal which was doing what.
On the first drive, both motors outputted roughly the same, given that the Tesla was off-road on a snowy hill.
It needed the extra assistance from the front motor to get up the hill.
Watching the two outputs, you can see when the front motor started to decrease.
As the kW dipped below zero, that is when the motors were in regen mode.
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How the YouTuber forced the car into all-wheel drive
Not content with this, William wanted to force the Tesla to use all-wheel drive.
He did this with some sliding of the Tesla, and both motor numbers suddenly spiked.
In essence, Williams tried to trick the EV into thinking it needed more grip than it actually did.
And as the viddeo showed, both the front and rear motors were outputting similar amounts of power.
So all-wheel drive can be tricked into kicking in to gain traction on hills or slippery surfaces.
But, as proven in the video, it’s mostly in rear-wheel drive mode only, without any front assistance.
What is also proven is that even if you buy an all-wheel drive Tesla, it won’t always be in that mode.
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