Thursday, May 5, 2016

Secret Pack: Tesla Announces Model S 70-75 Battery Upgrade Pricing

2017 Tesla Model S P90D

We noted yesterday that new owners of the Tesla Model S with the 70 kWh pack could have a surprise waiting for them in the form of an additional 5 kWh of battery capacity squirreled away beneath the floors of their automobiles. Now we have details.

Tesla confirmed that the 70 and 75 (available in both rear-drive and AWD specifications), will share a battery pack going forward, with the only difference being some lines of code that restrict the 70’s capacity. The price premium? Three-thousand bucks for a 75 over a 70. If you’d prefer to unlock your 70’s additional range later on, the over-the-air software update will run you $3,250, with an exception made for 2017 Model S 70 customers who took delivery of their cars prior to the 75’s announcement. They’ll pay the at-the-factory price of $3,000 for the OTA upgrade.

Rear-drive 75s offer a quoted range of 253 miles, while Tesla advertises 259 miles for the dual-motor models. That’s a 19-mile range increase across the board from the new pack, and when you opt for the upgrade, Tesla will rebadge your 70 as a 75. The badge is an actual physical thing made of atoms that Tesla should consider offering as code that owners could send to their personal 3-D printers.





We don’t doubt that some brave souls with hacking skills are figuring out a workaround to unlock the excess capacity without forking over the additional bills. Equally interesting will be Elon Musk’s response when somebody succeeds. As for us, the technical complexity of it all has us missing the Boss 302’s factory exhaust cutouts.


from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com/secret-pack-tesla-announces-model-s-70-75-battery-upgrade-pricing/


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