Jordan Golson, writing for The Verge:
Tesla is selling a car with an “upgradable” battery. Only it’s not upgradable in the take-it-to-the-dealer-and-they’ll-swap-out-some-hardware sense. Instead, you give Tesla thousands of dollars to “unlock” hardware that’s already included in your car with an over-the-air software update. The Model S 70 includes a 70kWh battery pack that’s good for around 240 miles of range. For $3,000 more, there’s a Model S 75 with a 75kWh battery pack that gives an additional 19 miles of range from the extra 5kWh of energy storage. But both models use the exact same battery for logistics and manufacturing purposes.
To make this crystal clear, Tesla sells a battery that is artificially limited to 240 miles of range. Pay $3,000 more, you get 259 miles.
Two things leap to mind here:
First, this is the auto industry’s version of in-app purchase, the definitive upsell.
Second, can I make this purchase if I am on the road and run out of battery?
Whoo…. I really don’t like this. Not only for the usual reasons, but because it encourages more “jailbreaking” which inherently makes devices less stable. Not something you’d like to see in semi-autonomous vehicles.
Sounds sleazy. What’s next, “free to drive” cars and you buy gold coins to purchase extra miles?
This is probably more pervasive than we like to admit. I contracted for HP years ago in their printer division. There were some of the higher end department-level printers (40+ ppm, 4000+ capacity paper tray, etc.) that had similar issues to this. Whether you purchased the 40, 50 or 60 ppm printer, internally it was identical, it was software settings that controlled the speeds.
The other side of this is cost savings per components or just inventory management of fewer different parts. Perhaps this happens for many more components that are included at different price points, not just batteries.
Well, first, this reduces Tesla’s cost of producing batteries in that they’re only producing one battery for different use cases. The big question is if that additional capacity is charged up when you do a full charge or not, i.e. is software isolating that part of the battery.
I’m sure there will be hackers who’ll figure out a way around it.
The great Elon Musk and his miraculous Tesla ecosystem does indeed have an elitist side.
If anyone thinks that Tesla can become the next great car company, call me. I have a bridge to sell you.
this is huckster nonsense.
I don’t view it as any more underhanded or awful than engine programming.
The only thing different between the engine in my XC70 and the one in the Polestar XC70 with 25 more HP and 25 more lb-ft of torque?
$500 in programming from the Volvo dealer.
i.e., it’s just software, and a pure profit center.
I suspect the battery just reports (or rather, the car OS reports) “empty” a few kW sooner.
ie, I bet it just doesn’t discharge as far.
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I don’t like this idea, but it has one fundamental difference than some of the other examples. Tesla provides free charging at its superchargers. Electricity isn’t free and a larger capacity battery would cost more to “fill”. Also, there’s likely trade-offs in battery life that they are hedging against (Didn’t Intel have a CPU that they tested and sold as a standard unity if 3/4 cores worked and as an overclocked version if all four worked).
The price difference does feel ridiculous. Also curious how it’s protected against an OTA attack that disconnects the extra 5kWh of storage midtrip.