[Meegul]

The battery pack contactor is one of the only, if not actually the only, moving pieces in a battery pack. A solenoid connects or disconnects the battery pack from the rest of the car's electronics. In this case, it seems to fail in the open state, meaning the battery was not able to power the car. Either there was simply a bad production batch of these particular solenoids or a change in supplier for this part.

Model Ys still have a separate, standard 12V battery that power many of the car's non-drivetrain related parts. So in this case, the battery pack contactor failing open would cause the car to lose the ability to drive, but the doors/windows/lights/screen would all still likely be working.

[reaperducer]

one of the only, if not actually the only,

Pet peeve: The phrase is "one of the few," not "one of the only." If something is "only," it can't be "one of" something.

[NobodyNada]

That's not correct; you can say sentences like "The only moving parts in a dishwasher are the two pumps, the sprayer arms, the water inlet valve, and the detergent dispenser"; or "there are only two hard problems in computer science". So "one of the only" sounds just fine to me.

[reaperducer]

you can say sentences like "The only moving parts in a dishwasher are the two pumps, the sprayer arms, the water inlet valve, and the detergent dispenser"; or "there are only two hard problems in computer science".

In the dishwasher example, "only" refers to "moving parts" which is a collective singular, like how "baseball team" is properly an "it," not a "they."

Same goes for the compsci example. By modifying the plural with adjectives, you narrow its scope.

[NobodyNada]

It's definitely not a collective singular, you say "the moving parts are", not "the moving parts is"; and "there are hard problems", not "there is hard problems".

Either way, the usage in the original comment was exactly the same as the dishwasher example: "the only moving parts are X, Y, and Z" => "X is one of the only moving parts".

[margalabargala]

You're not correct. A tertiary definition of "only" is "few". "One of the only" for a member of a small set if perfectly correct in English.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/only

[fnordlord]

Of all positive integers less than 10, only 4 are even numbers. 8 is one of the only. right?

[margalabargala]

"8 is one of the only" is a little off because it doesn't have an object, it relies on that being implicit from the prior sentence. "Only" here is an adjective, not a noun. The usage is a little awkward.

It would be more correct to say "there are only 4 positive integers less than 10. 8 is one of them."

[ianburrell]

"One of the only" even has its own dictionary page.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/one%20of%20the%20...

[Meegul]

Ha, good catch. I stared at that sentence for a few too many minutes as I wrote it because I knew it just didn't sound right.

[owlninja]

I thought it was a widely used and accepted idiom?

[dghlsakjg]

Not only idiomatic, it is part of the accepted definition of 'only' in Websters and OED.

It is perfectly acceptable to use only to refer to a select group.