60 or 85--I Need Help in Deciding!!!

[texex91]

Need help guys/gals!

Starting to rethink 85 and get 60. Would really use around town, not for long trips (if I did I could always add supercharger later).

Real question is the 0-60 is quite different according to site--but what is half a second???

60 and 85 owners please pipe in! Pros/cons of either!!

I'm ready to pull trigger but need to know if 85 is worth it????

This way I get my 'feet wet' and if I really love this car, then I could sell and get P85. But hate to make huge investment if I end up not liking.

 

[Discoducky]

Very happy with my stupidly quick 60. Even after driving a P85+ for a day of joy riding and don't think you'd notice the difference unless you were doing autocross or track days.

Drove the 60 to LA and back from Seattle in March without issue and now with Supercharging would be snap.

 

[jerry33]

I'm happy with my S85. My thought is that the 85 kWh battery will be stressed less and so will have a longer lifespan.

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

Very happy with my stupidly quick 60. Even after driving a P85+ for a day of joy riding and don't think you'd notice the difference unless you were doing autocross or track days.

pick 85! Autocross it, it's fun :wink:

seriously though, the 60 is almost just as awesome unless you are wanting to do 300 mile 1 day trips w/out superchargers

 

[Banahogg]

Another happy 60 owner here. Have done 2 supercharger road trips and loved it.

I'd recommend getting supercharger support - it's such a pleasant road trip car that you may use it more than you initially think, especially with the SCs coming online in Texas as we speak.

The range and longer wear are probably bigger differences between the 60 and 85 than anything else - the 0-40 time is nearly identical.

I'm sure you'd be happy with both. Worth it depends on what else you might spend that $8K on that might make you happy. I recommend good bourbon ;-)

 

[gene]

If you buy an 85, you won't regret it. If you buy a 60, you might.

 

[AlMc]

If the extra $10K is not an overriding issue I would go with the 85. I agree with others that the performance of the 60 is still excellent.

 

[tpoltron]

We were going to buy a 40 and only use it in the Bay Area but my wife swapped to an S85 at the last minute and then we started taking it to Tahoe and other longer trips and are now happy we got the 85. Performance difference is negligible in daily driving.

 

[dsm363]

The 60 is no slouch and plenty quick. That said with the distances in Texas I'd definitely get the 85. If you like performance cars then the P85 or P85+ are awesome. Even with Superchargers the ability to bypass them and drive to Houston or Dallas at whatever speed you want would be nice.

 

[liuping]

Besides range and performance improvement and superchargers included, the biggest reason I'm going with 85kwh is I plan on keeping the car for a long time, and with the 85, most week days I'll be able to charge to just 60-70% and not go below 30-40%, significantly increasing the battery life time.

 

[steve841]

85 ... same reasons as above.

 

[brianstorms]

+85

 

[Puyallup Bill]

If you buy an 85, you won't regret it. If you buy a 60, you might.

Very well put.

When I configured, there was absolutely no question that it must be an 85 kWh. Don't care about the performance - range is the overriding consideration as far as I am concerned. I have yet to start sweating whether well make it or not, and I like it that way.

 

[TexasEV]

I'm in Austin and love my 60. It accelerates faster than anything I've owned and faster than I would ever need. Driving to Houston or Dallas in an 85 you would probably use the supercharger anyway to make a round trip easier, so might as well save the money and get the 60. Austin will be surrounded by superchargers, so my thought is take advantage of it and save the $8000. I can only see an 85 would be worthwhile if you drive to east Texas or west Texas frequently. South Padre Island is out of range from Austin whether you get a 60 or 85.

 

[deonb]

Need help guys/gals!

Starting to rethink 85 and get 60. Would really use around town, not for long trips (if I did I could always add supercharger later).

Real question is the 0-60 is quite different according to site.

60 and 85 owners please pipe in! Pros/cons of either!!

I'm ready to pull trigger but need to know if 85 is worth it????

I did a similar 'around town' estimation before I got the car...

I used to drive a Highlander to/from work (4 miles) as well as around town. So my calculated usage was around 6000 miles per year total for around town, and add 4000 miles of 500 mile+ road trips.

So I figured my Model S would take over the 6000 miles of around town trips per year, and I still have the Highlander for camping, long road trips etc. Add to that a 1000 miles or so in the first year for novelty.

Good theory... Utterly wrong.


My 6'000 miles of "around town" usage per year is on track to become 15'000 miles per year. That's without adding real road trips (500mile+).

I still live only 4 miles from work, so what changed?

a) Dinner for us used to mean Redmond (2 miles) for the ordinary, Bellevue (20 miles) once a week, and Seattle (32 miles) on special occasions.
Now it means one of those for the ordinary, Vancouver/Portland once a week (240 to 350 miles) and Whistler on special occasions (440 miles).

b) Instead of going on twice-per-year 1500 mile road trips to CA, we now have almost weekly 250 mile+ day trips around the state to various parks, lakes, and any and every kind of festival. NEVER did that before. I've been to more places in our lovely state in the last 6 months than in the 15 years before that.

c) My planned Highlander camping trips became Model S camping trips the moment we figured out that you can fit more into a Model S than you can in a Highlander. Yes, really.


This isn't novelty. My usage is increasing month over month. This is a mental aspect of the car we're getting used to over time. In my Highlander I would have never thought about driving 350 miles to have dinner. It's $75 just in gas and you're killing a polar bear. Now, however, that trip costs me $5 and is sourced from hydro (over here at least). The Tesla removes the guilt feeling out of those trips, which now enables opportunities that were ridiculous sounding before.

And as a result of our lifestyle now, I would have really regretted getting the 60. (I almost got the 40!).


The car is literally life changing. Not as in "winning the lottery", but the things I do, the places I go, the food I eat, the people I meet, all changed as a result of the car.

When I bought the car I though it would just be a cool car, like a BMW M5.

I was wrong.

 

[mitch672]

The answer is more dependent on what area of the country you are in. Where I am, there are only SuperChargers on I95 on the way to NY/Washington.. I went to Six Flags last Friday via I90 (Mass Turnpike), it's 106 miles each way, no SuperCharger anywhere (yet). The park has zero EV charging.. There was a bank 3 miles north with a 30A J-1772 EVSE, that is slow charging.. I could have sat there for hours charging, but because I did a range charge on my 85, I had 259 miles at the start of the trip, so I don't need to stop and spend time charging (with my nephews in the car). This would have required time to stop and charge with the 60. A few weeks before I drove to Mount Washington, 180 miles one way before I stopped, again, just on the edge of capabilities of the 60. The other issue is degradation (range loss over time), your going to have more miles for more time with the 85 versus the 60. Once SuperChargers are more plentiful and widespread, it won't be as important, but even with them, you have to stop and wait (just not as long as 30A public J-1772 EVSEs). If you can afford the extra $10K, I think it's worthwhile.

 

[Longhorn92]

If you buy an 85, you won't regret it. If you buy a 60, you might.

If you buy a Tesla, you won't regret it.

Seriously, though, performance is great on all versions.

 

[xray]

I did a similar 'around town' estimation before I got the car...

I used to drive a Highlander to/from work (4 miles) as well as around town. So my calculated usage was around 6000 miles per year total for around town, and add 4000 miles of 500 mile+ road trips.

So I figured my Model S would take over the 6000 miles of around town trips per year, and I still have the Highlander for camping, long road trips etc. Add to that a 1000 miles or so in the first year for novelty.

Good theory... Utterly wrong.


My 6'000 miles of "around town" usage per year is on track to become 15'000 miles per year. That's without adding real road trips (500mile+).

I still live only 4 miles from work, so what changed?

a) Dinner for us used to mean Redmond (2 miles) for the ordinary, Bellevue (20 miles) once a week, and Seattle (32 miles) on special occasions.
Now it means one of those for the ordinary, Vancouver/Portland once a week (240 to 350 miles) and Whistler on special occasions (440 miles).

b) Instead of going on twice-per-year 1500 mile road trips to CA, we now have almost weekly 250 mile+ day trips around the state to various parks, lakes, and any and every kind of festival. NEVER did that before. I've been to more places in our lovely state in the last 6 months than in the 15 years before that.

c) My planned Highlander camping trips became Model S camping trips the moment we figured out that you can fit more into a Model S than you can in a Highlander. Yes, really.


This isn't novelty. My usage is increasing month over month. This is a mental aspect of the car we're getting used to over time. In my Highlander I would have never thought about driving 350 miles to have dinner. It's $75 just in gas and you're killing a polar bear. Now, however, that trip costs me $5 and is sourced from hydro (over here at least). The Tesla removes the guilt feeling out of those trips, which now enables opportunities that were ridiculous sounding before.

And as a result of our lifestyle now, I would have really regretted getting the 60. (I almost got the 40!).


The car is literally life changing. Not as in "winning the lottery", but the things I do, the places I go, the food I eat, the people I meet, all changed as a result of the car.

When I bought the car I though it would just be a cool car, like a BMW M5.

I was wrong.

deonb is on to something here. We also experienced much increased usage/mileage of the Tesla relatively to previous ICE cars. 85kW is my vote.

 

[evme]

The question comes down to what options are you planning to go for?

For example, if you take the supercharger option and the Tire upgrade, the difference ends up 7k.



Though I have been wondering about one things though. With the battery swap stations. Technically, cant you upgrade to 85kwh at any time?

 

[xray]

The question comes down to what options are you planning to go for?

For example, if you take the supercharger option and the Tire upgrade, the difference ends up 7k.



Though I have been wondering about one things though. With the battery swap stations. Technically, cant you upgrade to 85kwh at any time?

Currently, you can't upgrade, but we'll see once the battery swap stations are opened. By the same token, I'm hoping they will let me swap into an even bigger battery, for instance, 125kW or 150kW, once it's available. This would afford even more flexibility on long road trips.