Copied from another thread but I wanted to get my guess out there and hopefully add others' guesses as well to see who gets closest to the final dust settling result.
I think the P90D was in the pipeline when Elon mentioned the OTA update that would provide performance not seen outside the factory pending engineering verification comment. The team determined that additional hardware was required thus the birth of the P85DL upgrade. The slight improvement of the current iteration of the P90DL over the P85D is likely a combination of the 90 (increased capacity, slightly better current sourcing capability from different chemistry, ???) and a small raise in power extraction from the battery. This would allow enough differentiation from the P85D to warrant shipping and the extra cost even knowing they were missing the 1/4 mile number.
Fast forward to the MotorTrend piece and engineering has now properly proved the full P90DL concept thus the 2.6 sec 0-60 (beating the published spec ala P85 in its day) and making the 10.9 second 1/4 mile which is mind numbing for me. The thing that has me predicting an OTA upgrade for P90DL customers is that there is no way Tesla would have give MT access to a 10.9 second car if that same capability was not in the pipeline for existing customers. That would be begging for significant backlash.
IF
I am correct with the above, the P85DL SHOULD be an 11.1 second car with a 2.8 second 0-60. This is what I think Tesla is getting at when they mention the .2 second difference between the 90 and 85 DL. This level of difference would be consistent with Elon's comments that the move to 90 would not make much sense as it would not provide that much more performance for the cost of having to swap out the battery component.
I think the P90D was in the pipeline when Elon mentioned the OTA update that would provide performance not seen outside the factory pending engineering verification comment. The team determined that additional hardware was required thus the birth of the P85DL upgrade. The slight improvement of the current iteration of the P90DL over the P85D is likely a combination of the 90 (increased capacity, slightly better current sourcing capability from different chemistry, ???) and a small raise in power extraction from the battery. This would allow enough differentiation from the P85D to warrant shipping and the extra cost even knowing they were missing the 1/4 mile number.
Fast forward to the MotorTrend piece and engineering has now properly proved the full P90DL concept thus the 2.6 sec 0-60 (beating the published spec ala P85 in its day) and making the 10.9 second 1/4 mile which is mind numbing for me. The thing that has me predicting an OTA upgrade for P90DL customers is that there is no way Tesla would have give MT access to a 10.9 second car if that same capability was not in the pipeline for existing customers. That would be begging for significant backlash.
IF
I am correct with the above, the P85DL SHOULD be an 11.1 second car with a 2.8 second 0-60. This is what I think Tesla is getting at when they mention the .2 second difference between the 90 and 85 DL. This level of difference would be consistent with Elon's comments that the move to 90 would not make much sense as it would not provide that much more performance for the cost of having to swap out the battery component.