Tesla Testing Model Y, Model 3 And Model X Durability In The Dubai Desert, At More Than 122ºF

The most famous electric car company in the world has been publishing a series of very unusual images. In that sense, up until now it was common knowledge that Tesla has an extreme vehicle testing division in Alaska, where they test the limits of their EVs at temperatures well below freezing point. However, on the other hand, data on tests at extremely high temperatures were not so widely known, at least not for common media sources. This seems to have started to change now and the engineers of the Austin brand carried out these kinds of stress tests in the desert of Dubai, at more than 122ºF.

If anyone had doubts about the strength or durability of Tesla's electric vehicles, it has been very clearly shown here that they are capable of great technical achievements as regarding endurance. In the company's own official social media accounts, a series of images of almost the entire range of electric cars taking their first steps on the Dubai desert sands have already been published.

Extreme heat and durability testing in Dubai pic.twitter.com/xOmt7G9seh— Tesla (@Tesla) August 30, 2022

The company moved three of its currently marketed models to this very hostile environment: Tesla Model X, Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y; although as it can be seen, they gave some degree of priority to testing with the new access crossover (Model Y). In the aforementioned publications, Tesla specified that the quality engineers traveled to Dubai during the hottest time of the year (on purpose, obviously) to carry out these durability tests against extreme heat. “Temperatures exceeded 122ºF”.

These tests make a lot of sense because the three models mentioned have presented certain new features in recent months: the Model X received an update in some mechanical components; the LFP batteries of the Model 3 and the new variants of the Model Y, such as the recently "access" model presented. As a general rule, these kinds of tests are carried out in extreme climates to check how far the vehicles are capable of reaching in terms of range, as well as to know where their endurance limits are. This is something that is commonly carried out months before the actual commercial launch of the vehicle; in fact, German brand BMW published on several occasions the tests that were carried out on the recently introduced BMW i7.

In the case of Tesla, these tests will be able to help the company's engineers to predict the behavior of its electrical mechanics in the face of extreme factors. It is common for electric vehicle batteries to lose charge or range as the outside temperature decreases, something that can end up deteriorating their operation over the years; however, extreme heat does not help its battery pack either.

Tesla recently made a software update by which the software in its electric vehicles carry out a more detailed calculation of external factors - that actually cause the range of the battery to vary - such as crosswind, headwind, humidity, ambient temperature, tire pressure, or even smaller details like when users are charging their smartphone in the passenger compartment. All this in order to provide even more accurate data.

With the tests carried out in the Dubai desert it is possible that the brand will soon make public some of the data obtained – hopefully - or maybe even launch an update in order to improve some features of the models studied. Finally, it is clear that Tesla has done a "two for one" on this trip, since in addition to testing their EV models, they also had enough time to take some unusual – and nice - photographs of their cars crossing dunes in the desert.

All images courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.