Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

40kwh Model S canceled

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Thought it was an April 1st thing, but guess not.

Tesla Model S Sales Exceed Target | Press Releases | Tesla Motors


Tesla Motors announced today that sales of its Model S vehicle exceeded the target provided in the mid-February shareholder letter. As customers who note their Model S serial number this weekend will realize, vehicle deliveries (sales) exceeded 4,750 units vs. the 4,500 unit prior outlook. As a result, Tesla is amending its Q1 guidance to full profitability, both GAAP and non-GAAP.
“I am incredibly proud of the Tesla team for their outstanding work. There have been many car startups over the past several decades, but profitability is what makes a company real. Tesla is here to stay and keep fighting for the electric car revolution,” said Elon Musk, Tesla Motors co-founder and CEO. “I would also like to thank our customers for their passionate support of the company and the car. Without them, we would not be here.”

Also being announced today is that the small battery option for the Model S will not enter production, due to lack of demand. Only four percent of customers chose the 40 kWh battery pack, which is not enough to justify production of that version. Customers are voting with their wallet that they want a car that gives them the freedom to travel long distances when needed.

The customers who ordered this option will instead receive the 60 kWh pack, but range will be software limited to 40 kWh. It will still have the improved acceleration and top speed of the bigger pack, so will be a better product than originally ordered, and can be upgraded to the range of the 60 kWh upon request by the original or a future owner.

Tesla is also revealing a small Easter egg today: all 60 kWh cars have been and will be built with Supercharger hardware included. Tesla is taking a slight cost risk that ultimately all customers will want to buy the Supercharger upgrade and receive unlimited, free long distance travel for life. Even for those that never drive long distances, this will improve the resale value of their car to people that do.
 
If it turns out that people can hack their 40kw's into 60kw's, I'll be hella pissed :p

What does the last paragraph mean? Is Supercharging now included in the price of the 60kw (meaning that people like me who paid extra will be refunded) or is it merely software limited like the 40kw pack if you don't pay for it?
 
So put another way... There is a $10,000 incentive (per unit) in hacking a piece of software code in a car that's selling very well in Silicon Valley. Okidokey then...

- - - Updated - - -

Well isn't this an interesting development...

Put on your hip waders 'cause there's going to be a sh*t storm over this one.

I think you're right. This will be NYT all over again...

- - - Updated - - -

What does the last paragraph mean? Is Supercharging now included in the price of the 60kw (meaning that people like me who paid extra will be refunded) or is it merely software limited like the 40kw pack if you don't pay for it?

I think it means they never bothered with any hardware differences between Supercharge enabled/disabled 60kwh cars, just a software tweak. So now any 60kwh car can be supercharge enabled by $2000 and some secret software setting. (Speculating... but that's what it sounds like.)
 
If it turns out that people can hack their 40kw's into 60kw's, I'll be hella pissed :p

What does the last paragraph mean? Is Supercharging now included in the price of the 60kw (meaning that people like me who paid extra will be refunded) or is it merely software limited like the 40kw pack if you don't pay for it?

The hardware is there, but if you want to use it you need to pay and they'll turn it on.
 
4% want the 40Kwh... ok, I guess that makes some sense. Existing orders get filled with something that gives the range of the 40 but prolly actually has many miles after the 0 miles left mark.

Supercharger 'hardware' always seemed like a magical thing to me. Never could figure out what exactly they were talking about. So just going with all cars get supercharger 'hardware' and you pay extra for the privilege on a 60Kwh battery is a small step to just including access for everybody anyway. But they've prolly already cashed some checks with the extra cost, so they can't go back without sending out some refunds.
 
I think all 60s will have the hardware but still have to pay 2000 to be able to use the chargers i.e. have the functionality enabled. I wonder what about the 40 ones they will limit the range but can they use superchargers? or even pay 2000 to have it enabled.
 
Wow if you bought a 40 you gotta a hell of a deal. You basically can get the extended range later on if you end up needing it. Plus I doubt you will have any battery wear like the other packs because its still a much larger battery pack. Consider yourselves very lucky IMHO.
 
To be fair about the supercharger access, it's not just about flipping a switch in the hardware, there is also the usage of the superchargers (wear, tear, and electrons). If supercharger access is not worth anything to you, you saved $2k. It's another way of looking at it.
 
I'm sorry...but...this software limited business rubs me the wrong way. If the hardware is there, I should damn well be able to use it. My $0.03.
The idea is not to piss off the people who paid $10k extra for the 60kWh pack and $2k for supercharging. You essentially get a free boost to your resale value since your car is now easily upgradeable to one level higher and you also get a boost in performance and longevity of the pack. There's really nothing to complain about if you reserved a 40kWh version.

The interesting thing is that we now know the price of the 40kWh version is enough to cover the cost of the extra 20kWh worth of batteries.

Side point, if this was an April fools joke this would be one heck of an April fools joke.
 
Wow if you bought a 40 you gotta a hell of a deal. You basically can get the extended range later on if you end up needing it. Plus I doubt you will have any battery wear like the other packs because its still a much larger battery pack. Consider yourselves very lucky IMHO.

Agree. But I wouldn't be surprised if some disputes about the software turn up. Someone who runs out of juice and is dead on the road might wonder exactly how the software does its math :)
 
I'm sorry...but...this software limited business rubs me the wrong way. If the hardware is there, I should damn well be able to use it. My $0.03.
How would the 60kwh people feel that the 40kwh cars got the same thing but paid 10k less. I'm just thankful that they didn't limit the 0-60. And on top of that, you now have a supercharger.
 
WIth the 40s does it mean that the battery would never be fully charged? What they should do is that you get the full range but after 160 miles the car max speed is only 10-20 mph so that we can get to a charging station, instead of getting it towed away.