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Elon "About to end range anxiety"

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I am sure, reading your posts, wk057, that you know more about the battery that 99% of us. No chance of max range being extended?

No real room to expand it AFAICT - and durability implications of doing the small expansion they theoretically could do. See the chart in the thread below (I know it's been on several threads here, but this was the one that came up on google easily: )

Rated Range for 85 kWh battery | Forums | Tesla Motors
 
It's going to be a navigation update, standardized across all cars including non-tech package cars that currently do not have Nav. It will use predictive range and route planning in conjunction with a major network like Plugshare. Maybe throw in some efficiency improvements to marginally increase range. Total guess on all of this.
 
Interesting example. This announcement was to have "entire fleet" impact. While it technically "affected" the entire fleet by affecting the "supercharger ecosystem", IIRC a supermajority of the then fleet still cannot charge above 90 kW to this day.
Really? Highest VIN with an A battery was 9331. We have quite a few cars before that with B batteries. There are a few S40. And all S60 CAN charge above 90kW, it's just that some may not have this feature enabled, yet.
So at most 10k cars are restricted to < 90kW and even if you argue to include all non-supercharging S60, with the 60 accounting for (depending whom you ask) somewhere between 15 and 25% of the cars... regardless how many of those are SC enabled (and I'd bet at least half are at this point) you are still a long ways away from a supermajority...
 
Hundreds of posts here but I don't see anyone noting the fact that Elon spoke of this upgrade all the way back in the Q4 earnings meeting.

J.B. Straubel mentioned a significant upgrade was coming before that (but after 6.1).


I think the announcement's related to Musk's other business, cloning, though.

A Model X prototype with tow hitch, driven by a Bonnie clone, will tow you if you run out of juice.
 
I am sure, reading your posts, wk057, that you know more about the battery that 99% of us. No chance of max range being extended?

It's not about range. More range simply moves the point of anxiety. ICE drivers suffer anxiety too. The reason it's not an issue for most ICE drivers is that you can fill up quickly just about anywhere these days. I still think the announcement is about charge speed and availability of charging stations. There's other anecdotal evidence to support it. Rhetorically, why make the second on-board charger optional for new cars? If charge was quick and everywhere, most drivers would not need a second on-board charger. Connecting the dots ...
 
Don't know whether it's already been punted, but how about an 'on the move' recharge in the same way as military aircraft refuel. It ties in with Elon's self managing 'snake-like' charge cable and the ability to speed match multiple vehicles (as has been done by Volvo with their autonomous vehicle program). Mobile charging station pulls up behind you, cable on truck extends and provides you with a charge on the move.???
 
Elon is quirky and brilliant at the same time. The key as most have stated relates to improved navigation regardless of how that gets done.
I also wonder why a press conference? The pessimist in me believes that Elon has seen the stock go down by more than 100+ points and knows that a successful press conference will help reverse "some" of that loss.
Besides he is tired of getting questions about the X reveal and this is a good way to change the discussion, at least for a little while.

It's not the stock that matters, it's people wanting the product. Range anxiety is a very important issue and cracking range anxiety with accurate prediction is a huge deal, especially given that Tesla has a long-distance BEV and is building out the Supercharger network. For the but-but-but-heads, you then just need a user-settable safety buffer. I also hope they integrate Plugshare/country's charger directory to help with gaps and the wilderness.

PS I find it so sad that so many journalists have even considered that this could be about tweaks to range, and some didn't even do basic research to understand that this has been coming for a long time.
 
PS I find it so sad that so many journalists have even considered that this could be about tweaks to range, and some didn't even do basic research to understand that this has been coming for a long time.
You are shocked that there are journalists who don't do even basic research before writing about... pretty much anything?
I was going to say "you must be new to EVs" but your post count and reputation makes me think you are just not cynical enough, yet :-/

Edited to add: weee... page 50!
 
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This forum is really good at figuring these things out.

So now - please - someone show me, which of these 440+ answers are correct.

Thursday we will know. And in hindsight we will say:

"This forum is really good at figuring these things out."

I'm sure it's here somewhere.


Having read them all, I'll take a crack at it:

(1) Efficiency increase. No doubt some new things were learned during the torque sleep development, and all RWD Teslas can now benefit. But nothing earth-shattering here.

(2) Trip Planning. Real-time NAV and 6.1 range prediction are quite good. Charging guidance that includes level 2 charging options would make it very hard to get stranded.

(3) Towing or mobile charging. These might become free services to anyone stranded under the new trip planning update.

(4) Range increase. It may soon be possible to order a "400-mile" Roadster pack, and a bigger pack for S/X might be unveiled too.
 
Having read them all, I'll take a crack at it:

(1) Efficiency increase. No doubt some new things were learned during the torque sleep development, and all RWD Teslas can now benefit. But nothing earth-shattering here.

(2) Trip Planning. Real-time NAV and 6.1 range prediction are quite good. Charging guidance that includes level 2 charging options would make it very hard to get stranded.

(3) Towing or mobile charging. These might become free services to anyone stranded under the new trip planning update.

(4) Range increase. It may soon be possible to order a "400-mile" Roadster pack, and a bigger pack for S/X might be unveiled too.

You forgot (5) Even faster supercharging; recharging time to come down to virtual parity with refill at gas station. I'll quote SteveS03 here: Tesla engineers "realized that they can get more energy into the battery much more quickly without risking the longevity of the battery pack. Perhaps the OTA software upgrade could be to remove or significantly modify the taper in the charge characteristic, and increase the amount of power the Supercharger can dump into the battery" .
 
Elon king of overpromissing and underdelivering. The P85D has been delivering. Autopilot funcionality isn't fully available but has been coming one step at a time.

About range anxiety, perhaps enabling navigation for all cars, warning people if their current destination leaves less than X miles of reserve range, pulsing the motor for lower energy consumption (by going to the set speed and letting the car coast to 5 mph less, cycling this process continuously), and enabling the motor sleep in the D.

Finally, a retrospective of already delivered supercharger stations, and a commitment to having SCs every 80 miles on every major interstate, a supercharger for every million people in metro areas.
"End to range anxiety" doesn't mean immediate, it could be a year long process.

The real problem Elon brought onto himself is he was so brutally honest and delivered so much we expect him to come through perfecting moving forward, which becomes harder and harder as people become more and more demanding of Tesla.

Finally, perhaps a solar panel for Teslas. Even a modest 5% gain in range daytime, and the ability to fully recharge in 3 summer days with full daylight is nothing to sneeze at.

I read his statement that some of what he'll announce is a software upgrade, but perhaps not everything.
 
That's the advantage to making all of these guesses now. Most likely one of them is somewhat close to correct. :)
I'm hoping that it's a reduction in charge time at level 2 chargers. What we don't need is more owners lining up to use Superchargers on long trips. If I recall correctly, Tesla filed a patent about a year ago dealing with charging technology. It might prevent locals from hogging superchargers just to top off
 
I'm hoping that it's a reduction in charge time at level 2 chargers. What we don't need is more owners lining up to use Superchargers on long trips. If I recall correctly, Tesla filed a patent about a year ago dealing with charging technology. It might prevent locals from hogging superchargers just to top off

I'll be shocked. The charger hardware is built in to the car, but the charging current is limited by the source. Tesla can't speed up the charging for most places even if they found a way to make the current charger hardware handle twice the energy/power (which also isn't happening, but that's another matter.)

Except for dedicated locations with HPWC and a small number of 70+ Amp J1772 chargers, the current firmware with a single charger can happily take everything that most charging locations can give. Tesla can't change what other people have chosen to install - and they can't make the battery charge significantly more on the same amount of wall energy.
Walter