Good point.

Just a bit off topic, but why is Tesla allowing their technology to be stolen by Xpeng?

 

I was a bit surprised as well.. I am sure the next UX will have a similar set up as the RAV4.

 

They are suing Xpeng for IP theft. Xpeng has hired a bunch of Tesla engineers. At this point, the technology has already been stolen.

 

They can't sue Xpeng, because Tesla signed an agreement that they would legally transfer BEV technology to China in exchange for access to the Chinese market with a population of 1.4 billion.
However, the West does not force China to legally transfer China's technology in return for Chinese access to Western markets with a population of several billion people.

 

you dont warranty batteries for 1 million kilometers for no good reason - warranties are very expensive, especially when you do it at such crazy level.

Only reason Tesla keeps lowering their battery warranty has to be that it costs them too much, so I would take claims about Tesla offering great reliability at anything with huge grain of salt - it is literally universally bashed for being worst in reliability, everywhere.

Also, plenty of climates where this is going to get sold are harsher than California.

 

Where have they lowered battery warranties? They recently lowered their used car warranty but thats for bumper to bumper. The battery and powertrain warranty has always been 8 years. The Model 3 has either 100k or 120k depending on trim and Model S has a reasonable 150k mile warranty.

 

Depends on the terms of the warranty. See Hyundai for a good example of why a long warranty can be essentially useless.

 

Its also ridiculous to compare the two warranties as the UX300e can only have 50kw DC fast charging while the Tesla can go up to 250kw DC fast charging. The slowest Tesla also outputs significantly more power than the UX300e so of course the Tesla batteries will see more high power cycles than the UX300e. Tesla's warranty policy is generous given the usage between the two cars...one a high performance EV, the other is basically a turtle and charges very slow relatively. Very different applications.

 

https://thedriven.io/2020/11/11/its-...for-australia/

Lexus will expand availability of the UXe to Australia. 50 minutes to fully charge. The Lexus UX 300e weighs in at a hefty 1900kg, rides 20mm lower to the ground than other UX variants and has specially designed alloy wheels and a flat underbody to improve aerodynamics.

https://www.motoring.com.au/first-le...tralia-127199/

 

With lockdowns and covid consigned to history the Lexus UX300e will generate urban excitement in Australia.

https://www.caradvice.com.au/899445/...-electric-suv/

 

 

2023 Lexus UX Revealed With New Infotainment And Stiffer Body (motor1.com)

The UX300e's battery has increased from 54.4 kWh to 72.8 kWh to increase range by 40%.
We always knew this was destined to occur.
bZ and RZ will get bigger battery packs with increased range too.

The biggest stumbling block is there simply isn't enough rare earth metal minining nor enough rare earth metal processing to produce enough batteries, esp at this large size.
Meanwhile, breakthroughs in alternative battery chemistries like solid state are hard to come by.
Hence, hybrids and plug-in PHEV's will be around for quite some time yet.

 

No they won't. They have the same 72.8 kWh batteries.

And 280 miles of range based on the very lenient Chinese WLTP for a single motor vehicle... this is far less efficient than even the BZ.

 

You misunderstood me.
What I’m trying to say is that TMC increase the size of their battery packs two years down the track - when they can get their hands on more batteries - due to supply issues.

UX is only an ICEV platform with limited wheelbase and track, hence 72.8 kWh is literally as large as this subcompact can go.

On the other hand, dedicated EV TNGA-e platform bZ and RZ is capable of much bigger battery packs - when supply allows.

The bottleneck for TMC and the whole world is rare earth metal battery supply.

 

I understood you just fine. My point was that the 72.8 kWH battery is an existing battery already in the BZ4X, Toyota didn't go out of their way to design a new larger battery pack for the UX. Economies of scale are at play.

They aren't going to go out of their way to design a new larger battery pack for the BZ unless customers are willing to pony up another few thousand dollars- batteries remain the most expensive component in EV's after all. Which brings me to another point- the UX with the larger battery doesn't have a price yet, but I'm confident it will be significantly more expensive than the current model.