Have any P85D owners confirmed service date for Ludicrous mode retrofit?

[yo mama]

There are now some launch videos of P90D with ludicrous over at teslarati.com http://www.teslarati.com/tesla-p90d-ludicrous-launch-reactions/

 

[Andyw2100]

There are now some launch videos of P90D with ludicrous over at teslarati.com http://www.teslarati.com/tesla-p90d-ludicrous-launch-reactions/

Those videos were all made by TMC's very own Pete90D, and were posted in this thread:

P90D reaction videos... volunteers needed

 

[Pete90D]

A small note I shared in another thread. When I picked up my car I mentioned it was kind of a bummer paying 10k+tax for L-mode when I could have paid less if I had just upgraded. The guy told me that he heard it may actually be pretty expensive to upgrade, that it was something like 4 techs and many hours of labor to do it all. Hopefully someone finds out what the final price is going to be soon. It's unfortunate that hasn't been made clear yet.

 

[yo mama]

Well that's not particularly encouraging. Pete90D - I'm totally stoked for you, but having picked up my P85D like three weeks prior to you, I'm totally jealous. :smile: I was really hoping the upgrade process would be the solution to that, and perhaps it may still be. Whatevs - this is one of two primary reasons I opted to lease my Tesla. That way I can enjoy the new hotness every three years or so.

 

[wk057]

It's not the simplest process. The battery pack will need to be removed from the car. Then the pack needs to be opened properly to get to the contactors (the fuse is accessible once the pack is removed via its own access panel). Opening the rear of the pack is not easy. I haven't seen the official procedure for this, but having opened two packs myself... I honestly don't know how they could make this an easy process.

Then it needs to be closed up and sealed and reinstalled in the car. I'd say best case would be 4-6 hours of labor with multiple techs.

 

[MarcG]

Would it conceivably be less costly to get a 90kWh pack that already has the upgraded fuses & contactors?
Also, is there anything else that needs to be upgraded outside of the battery pack (wires or fuses in the car)?

 

[wk057]

Would it conceivably be less costly to get a 90kWh pack that already has the upgraded fuses & contactors?
Also, is there anything else that needs to be upgraded outside of the battery pack (wires or fuses in the car)?

I'd doubt there is anything inside the car that would need to be changed. The wiring isn't going to make much of a difference at this point (they're already running it at 5x+ NEC spec'd capacity at times, so bumping it up a notch and making that 4.8x capacity isn't going to matter).

I had a situation last night where 100% charge was just not enough to do what I needed to do and I'm seriously considering swapping to a 90 pack if it's not ridiculous. I have a feeling it'll be in the $20k+ ball park, even if Tesla is generous on a traded in pack.

 

[Pete90D]

Would it conceivably be less costly to get a 90kWh pack that already has the upgraded fuses & contactors?
Also, is there anything else that needs to be upgraded outside of the battery pack (wires or fuses in the car)?

Probably not less expensive. To get the upgraded fuses you're having to pay the $10k for new, but even if they said you can get a new pack and only pay $5k because you're an existing owner, you still have the cost of the pack after trade-in. I think the upgrade cost with labor is probably close to the cost to add L-mode in a new purchase, but I have no facts that back that other than the comment made at delivery.

 

[sorka]

A small note I shared in another thread. When I picked up my car I mentioned it was kind of a bummer paying 10k+tax for L-mode when I could have paid less if I had just upgraded. The guy told me that he heard it may actually be pretty expensive to upgrade, that it was something like 4 techs and many hours of labor to do it all. Hopefully someone finds out what the final price is going to be soon. It's unfortunate that hasn't been made clear yet.

If it ends up being that expensive:

"This option will cost $10k for new buyers. In appreciation of our existing P85D owners, the pack electronics upgrade needed for Ludicrous Mode will be offered for the next six months at only $5k plus installation labor."

Then this statement which sort of implies that he bulk of the cost is $5K will be thrown out the window.

 

[Pete90D]

If it ends up being that expensive:

"This option will cost $10k for new buyers. In appreciation of our existing P85D owners, the pack electronics upgrade needed for Ludicrous Mode will be offered for the next six months at only $5k plus installation labor."

Then this statement which sort of implies that he bulk of the cost is $5K will be thrown out the window.

The guy may have been completely wrong and I hope he was for P85D owners wallets. If labor is $5k, and takes 4 techs, that's ~10hrs @ $120/hr, which seems like a lot of hours to retrofit this.

I have looked at it this way though. I paid $10k to have a change made while the car was being assembled, which is much easier to do, to a car that was intended to have this added from the start. Assembly may have even been done by robots. It wouldn't surprise me if the bulk of the cost was for the parts. A lot of times adding things on afterwards is more expensive, for example Turbine wheels being $5500 instead of $4500. So I think the $5k is probably a gift from Tesla as a discount from what I actually paid for parts. It doesn't necessarily mean that the $5k is more or less than the labor, it just means that's what you're paying for parts.

 

[tstafford]

Well that's not particularly encouraging. Pete90D - I'm totally stoked for you, but having picked up my P85D like three weeks prior to you, I'm totally jealous. :smile: I was really hoping the upgrade process would be the solution to that, and perhaps it may still be. Whatevs - this is one of two primary reasons I opted to lease my Tesla. That way I can enjoy the new hotness every three years or so.

I did the exact same thing. This makes the math of the upgrade even more complex. I've only got the remaining months of the lease to amortize the cost. Every month that passes without the upgrade effectively makes it more costly. At some point I just toss in the towel and save the $6K-$7K toward the next down payment (or spend it on some other equally frivolous thing). If I can get the upgrade in the next six months or so at the current best guess price I'm surely game, after that it's a question.

 

[sorka]

The guy may have been completely wrong and I hope he was for P85D owners wallets. If labor is $5k, and takes 4 techs, that's ~10hrs @ $120/hr, which seems like a lot of hours to retrofit this.

I have looked at it this way though. I paid $10k to have a change made while the car was being assembled, which is much easier to do, to a car that was intended to have this added from the start. Assembly may have even been done by robots. It wouldn't surprise me if the bulk of the cost was for the parts. A lot of times adding things on afterwards is more expensive, for example Turbine wheels being $5500 instead of $4500. So I think the $5k is probably a gift from Tesla as a discount from what I actually paid for parts. It doesn't necessarily mean that the $5k is more or less than the labor, it just means that's what you're paying for parts.

I think there's no doubt that Teslas's cost is more doing it as a retrofit than when factory assembled. I think most people were reading Elon's statement that P85D owners were getting a break for any number of conspiracy reasons. One theory is that this is Tesla's way of partially compensating P85D owners for the horsepower issue without coming out and just giving it away for free which would look like a massive price hike for new P90D owners as they could have gotten it for less had they bought a P85D. Another theory is Tesla doesn't want to piss off P85D owners by having something come out so soon that obsoletes the car they bought.

 

[yo mama]

I did the exact same thing. This makes the math of the upgrade even more complex. I've only got the remaining months of the lease to amortize the cost. Every month that passes without the upgrade effectively makes it more costly. At some point I just toss in the towel and save the $6K-$7K toward the next down payment (or spend it on some other equally frivolous thing). If I can get the upgrade in the next six months or so at the current best guess price I'm surely game, after that it's a question.

That's right - you and I were picking up at roughly the same time. One thing Tesla *was* able to confirm was that they will NOT roll the costs of the upgrade into the lease, despite the fact that the upgrade increases the residual value of the car at the lease's expiration. So, yeah - I agree with you. Every month that passes I'm less interested in the upgrade because I'm one month closer to leasing the next one. I'm #15 on the upgrade list but that's a frustratingly meaningless number at the moment.

- - - Updated - - -

I think there's no doubt that Teslas's cost is more doing it as a retrofit than when factory assembled. I think most people were reading Elon's statement that P85D owners were getting a break for any number of conspiracy reasons. One theory is that this is Tesla's way of partially compensating P85D owners for the horsepower issue without coming out and just giving it away for free which would look like a massive price hike for new P90D owners as they could have gotten it for less had they bought a P85D. Another theory is Tesla doesn't want to piss off P85D owners by having something come out so soon that obsoletes the car they bought.

Your last comment is legit. I ordered what I thought was the best/coolest Tesla available... and that lasted all of three weeks. I still totally love the product but would have happily waited a few more weeks to do what Pete90D did, had I been given the option. For me it wasn't about price - it was about getting the experience I wanted. I doubt I'm the only one who feels that way, so hopefully Tesla will throw me/us a bone. Or maybe they don't give a care because they know I'll be back for more no matter what.

 

[jpet]

The guy told me that he heard it may actually be pretty expensive to upgrade, that it was something like 4 techs and many hours of labor to do it all. Hopefully someone finds out what the final price is going to be soon. It's unfortunate that hasn't been made clear yet.

My Tesla contact told me they were in the process of gathering "interest" in the upgrade for the European market. Based on the number of P85D owners interested, they would get a better view on the logistics and cost to get the upgrades done. So maybe they have not yet decided if they will be opening the existing battery packs vs installing new ones...

In the past battery packs that needed to have the contactors replaced were shipped! all the way to the mothership. Now they can be serviced locally but probably not in every SeC. I guess opening the pack is not without danger so not every technician is allowed to perform this type of work.

 

[MarcG]

I have looked at it this way though. I paid $10k to have a change made while the car was being assembled, which is much easier to do, to a car that was intended to have this added from the start. Assembly may have even been done by robots. It wouldn't surprise me if the bulk of the cost was for the parts. A lot of times adding things on afterwards is more expensive, for example Turbine wheels being $5500 instead of $4500. So I think the $5k is probably a gift from Tesla as a discount from what I actually paid for parts. It doesn't necessarily mean that the $5k is more or less than the labor, it just means that's what you're paying for parts.

I'm not so sure that the PRICE to P85D customers (not the COST to Tesla) will be higher for upgrading to 90kWh AND Ludicrous, instead of getting these two "features" for $13,000 as part of the order of a new P90D.
I remember Elon stating it would be $3,000 for the pack upgrade, and $5,000 for electronics upgrade + labor, so $8,000 + labor (but I could be wrong). If I'm not, labor would need to be under $5,000 for the upgrade option to be cheaper (not impossible...)

However I can definitely tell you that it is NOT more expensive to buy the 21" wheels after having ordered a Model S with 19" wheels, than ordering a Model S with 21" wheels from the factory then buying a set of 19" wheels.

Option 1: order Model S with 19" from the factory
Price of 19" wheels: none (included in Model S price)
Price of 21" wheels: $5,500 from Tesla accessories page
TOTAL PRICE FOR BOTH SETS: $5,500

Option 2: order Model S with 21" from the factory
Price of 19" wheels: $2,500 from Tesla accessories page
Price of 21" wheels: $4,500 from Design (order) page
TOTAL PRICE FOR BOTH SETS: $7,000

So it's actually $1,500 more expensive to buy the 21" set with the car then order the 19" set as accessory, than to get the 19" set up-front then buy the 21" set as accessory.

Of course this assumes you want both 19" and 21" wheels. But if you only wanted a 21" set, it wouldn't be an apples-to-apples comparison between the 2 options since you'd end up with an additional set of wheels (the 19") that would have effectively only cost you $1,000 relative to the other option.