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List of “Upgrade Later”

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As far as I know, you will be able to upgrade “later” the Enhanced Autopilot feature and Full Self-Driving feature.

However, do we have any confirmation on the battery upgradability?

I’m very sure we cannot upgrade interior features such as seat materials, heated seats, and etc. If I’m wrong please let me know.
 
The software unlocks in batteries in the past have been because Tesla was placing the physically higher-capacity pack in the car and selling it cheaper with part of it locked out. This is not the case in the Model 3, as evidenced by the weight difference between the standard range and long range models.
 
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Perhaps they might do efficiency tweaking via software, but nothing that will "unlock" additional kWh I think.

But those improvements will be very minor. Even 5%, which is a lot for just SW updates, would only give you 11 more miles more on the SR.


As far as I know, you will be able to upgrade “later” the Enhanced Autopilot feature and Full Self-Driving feature.

However, do we have any confirmation on the battery upgradability?

I’m very sure we cannot upgrade interior features such as seat materials, heated seats, and etc. If I’m wrong please let me know.

Do you mean SW upgrade, or HW upgrade? There might be some battery HW upgrade in the future, but I somewhat doubt it. Maybe the aftermarket will have something.

SW upgrade is imposible, since the SR doesn't have the LR's battery.
 
From what I have read, M3's battery pack is not easy to get to, compared to S/X. I am sure in 3-5 years bigger, cheaper better packs will be available from Tesla or even as aftermarket products but I have not heard anything official about battery upgradability from Tesla.

M3 battery pack's architecture.
Tesla Model 3: Exclusive first look at Tesla’s new battery pack architecture
The main point is that a lot of the hardware that is 'separate' in the S and X (chargers, and even BMS (?)) is integrated into that 'hump' part that protrudes through the chassis hole back of the battery pack. This makes the battery more expensive and more difficult to swap out. (Forget the original paradigm of 'drive in and get a new battery pack in 20 minutes' like was planned a few years ago!)

With all that hardware as a part of the pack, I think you can really say a replacement (upgrade) will make it more cost effective to get a new car. Especially when, by then, the current ones will have lots more options and improvements compared to the 2017-2018 versions. And the secondary market for 3's will be going gangbusters with people wanting a good used one for a good price.
 
Buying a Tesla is like buying an Apple laptop - get the hardware you think you’ll need upfront, because you’re not going to be able to upgrade it later.

As an owner of an '07 iBook with SSD...well, you know.

I'm sad to hear this about the inability to swap out the battery. One of my favorite Tesla demo videos was battery swap vs. LA gas station fill up. I hope they haven't abandoned that idea altogether--especially on the electric commercial truck. Auto-swapped batteries on big trucks seems like a game changer.
 
As an owner of an '07 iBook with SSD...well, you know.

I'm sad to hear this about the inability to swap out the battery. One of my favorite Tesla demo videos was battery swap vs. LA gas station fill up. I hope they haven't abandoned that idea altogether--especially on the electric commercial truck. Auto-swapped batteries on big trucks seems like a game changer.
Sorry, should have specified “new Apple laptop.” :p

Everything I’ve ready says that Tesla has pretty much abandoned the battery swap (at least for their consumer vehicles). In my mind it might make more sense for the semi.
 
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