- Teslas are going to be built in such a way that every part runs for 1,000,000 miles
- “Refuelling” in the pit could be as quick as quick-releasing the battery sled, and popping in a charged one in it’s place
The FIA rules around 'refuelling' are incredibly strict and right now replacing batteries in the pit would be highly illegal. The rules can change of course, but with 400+ V and tons of mass that has to be slung around there is no way the FIA would take it lightly. When a couple extra seconds in the pit can make or break a race teams will always try to cut corners, so the FIA takes pit safety extremely seriously.
There is a reason formula-e used 2 cars rather than battery swapping when they didn't have the legs to complete a single race.
Definitely valid points here. I didn't mean to say that Tesla's million consumer miles meant that they could automatically endure Le Mans, but more that it's clear the technology scales very well. Maybe Porsche will come out of nowhere with an even more stable and more performant electric car that has a 6000mi range and can just hold the pedal down the whole time. Who knows, but my instinct says the eventual winner will definitely be electric.
I think that really depends on the context.
For most races? You're probably right.
It'll be extremely difficult for electrics to beat gas cars at something like the 24 hours of Le Mans.