200kWh battery, when in Model S/X?

[shelbri]

How do you know I'm not Canadian? Was it my email accent?

Well sort of...Your use of Fahrenheit to indicate below freezing temps gave you away.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

Damn it's like that bar scene in Inglorious Bastards. 0 C should have been the answer..

 

[sandpiper]

Well who knew I’d fine all the Canadians in this thread.

Definitely understand the impact of cold and snow. My worst wh/mi was ~475 with temps at -10f snowing and windy. Not a normal day down here, even for VT. And yes we have better Supercharger infrastructure down here for the time being. Hopefully the build out continues and the trans-Canadian highway is complete with Superchargers next year.

Every few months somebody pops up saying "Why does anybody need a bigger battery? Nobody needs that.". And Elon has done it himself. I guess it's been too many years since he's lived in Canada.

Whenever this pops up, it needs to stomped on fast and hard. There are a lot of folks living in the northern US and Canada, who need that bigger battery. If Tesla wants zero compromise, 150 kwh + is where they need to be.

 

[Rockster]

Re: the "why would you need a bigger battery?" question, I think, too, that public perception is a factor. There's still very much a perception among Joe Average that BEVs are inconvenient, range limited compromises. Longer range gets the attention of potential buyers who might otherwise think there's no way a BEV is for them.

 

[blackscraper]

maybe a larger battery battery does not mean too much for someone, but it means to me:
1. Don't have to stop quite as often
2. I can turn up the heat a little bit
3. I can drive a little bit faster
4. Most importantly, speed up my road trip significantly.

 

[Xenoilphobe]

Also power my house for a couple of days during a power outage.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

I don’t understand the need for such a large battery. I’ve been driving a Tesla for 3 yrs now and am approaching 100k in total miles driven. While I can understand the theory behind wanting a larger battery for the 5-10% of the time you are on long road trips, the need is not really there and is inefficient for the 90% of the time you are just using the car for daily driving.

If you believe that, then by all means go try and sell a gasoline car that gets only 250 miles of range. It's not about need, it's about perception.

 

[shelbri]

If you believe that, then by all means go try and sell a gasoline car that gets only 250 miles of range. It's not about need, it's about perception.

I have no desire to sell gasoline cars nor will I buy one.

As I said in my original post, some folks will benefit from the longer range (i.e., those in very cold climates or folks taking frequent 200+ mile trips) but the larger population thinks they need it but will likely spend more money than necessary. Certainly their choice but hopefully they do so and don't regret it. I'd regret paying another $50-$80k for a 200D if all I got was additional range. That is a lot of money to spend to avoid 1 or 2 extra 30 minute stops on the occasional long distance road trip. Supercharging works for me and the build out continues to make it better.

Just my opinion. YMMV

 

[Chaserr]

We need a bigger battery for the same reason the Roadster has it: better performance. Voltage dropoff happens much later, and cooling is much easier. We may not use the range often, but that is a nice side effect of having a performance car that has unbeatable track performance. It's what a Tesla deserves. Plus, Tesla has always led the industry - as other manufacturers are pushing into larger, realistic battery pack capacities, Tesla can continue to push them to do better until there is literally no reason anyone would want an ICE vehicle any more. Range is as a boogeyman fear for newcomers, but it's a big one.