My experience upgrading my Model 3 Standard Range to the Plus

[FanBoy0427]

Back in 2020, I bought the M3 Standard Range since I saved up just enough for it. Fast forward to now, I had a little extra money so decided to upgrade the M3 to the Plus. I sent a service request (under "Other") and requested the upgrade. About two days later, the local Tesla service center was assigned and uploaded an invoice for $2k + tax. I didn't realize that you're not required to also purchase Autopilot in order to upgrade so I was pleasantly surprised.

I was told to pay the invoice, thru the app, and the car would turn into the Plus in 3 days. Four days go by and nothing, so I call the service center and the the guys there were completely clueless. Apparently, this was the first time they had encountered such an upgrade. They kept telling me to keep waiting while they followed up with the engineering team. I was pretty livid, the advisors there were didn't seem to care, one even told me to start a chargeback on my credit card when all I wanted was, still, the upgrade.

I escalated the issue to Tesla corporate, the rep said this is a "tier 2" issue and a supervisor at the service center will be informed. A day later, the service people said they forgot to fill out a form and send it into the engineer team, hence, they never got the request to upgrade to the Plus. By the end of the day, I checked my app, and boom, the car is now a plus.

No actual software update came thru, just a back end update. Got the extra battery range unlock, saw the immersive sound, couldn't clock the 0-60 acceleration though. Im glad the ordeal is over, and happy that I don't have the lowest model 3 trim anymore lol.

 

[rustnrot]

This is good news. We are going to try today to unlock more battery on our 2019 Standard Range. As I recall, in the past you had to bundle the autopilot purchase in order to accomplish the unlock purchase. We don't want autopilot at any price. Will post follow-up.

 

[Docsling]

Back in 2020, I bought the M3 Standard Range since I saved up just enough for it. Fast forward to now, I had a little extra money so decided to upgrade the M3 to the Plus. I sent a service request (under "Other") and requested the upgrade. About two days later, the local Tesla service center was assigned and uploaded an invoice for $2k + tax. I didn't realize that you're not required to also purchase Autopilot in order to upgrade so I was pleasantly surprised.

I was told to pay the invoice, thru the app, and the car would turn into the Plus in 3 days. Four days go by and nothing, so I call the service center and the the guys there were completely clueless. Apparently, this was the first time they had encountered such an upgrade. They kept telling me to keep waiting while they followed up with the engineering team. I was pretty livid, the advisors there were didn't seem to care, one even told me to start a chargeback on my credit card when all I wanted was, still, the upgrade.

I escalated the issue to Tesla corporate, the rep said this is a "tier 2" issue and a supervisor at the service center will be informed. A day later, the service people said they forgot to fill out a form and send it into the engineer team, hence, they never got the request to upgrade to the Plus. By the end of the day, I checked my app, and boom, the car is now a plus.

No actual software update came thru, just a back end update. Got the extra battery range unlock, saw the immersive sound, couldn't clock the 0-60 acceleration though. Im glad the ordeal is over, and happy that I don't have the lowest model 3 trim anymore lol.

View attachment 820244

Was it worth the 2K for the upgrade. Did you get the full 30 mile additional range. My 2020 M3SR gets 199 miles at 100% charge, will I expect the new range to be ~ 230 after the upgrade?

 

[mister_two]

Very interesting. I had no idea there was ever a regular Standard Range model, I thought they were all SR+. But now that I think about it, it does make sense. If they were all the same they would have just called it SR. When I placed my order back in July of 2021 the options for the 3 were SR+, LR and Performance. When did Tesla stop selling the SR ?

 

[Docsling]

Very interesting. I had no idea there was ever a regular Standard Range model, I thought they were all SR+. But now that I think about it, it does make sense. If they were all the same they would have just called it SR. When I placed my order back in July of 2021 the options for the 3 were SR+, LR and Performance. When did Tesla stop selling the SR ?

sometime end of 2020 or early 2021. I think it was the best deal for a M3. sad that they do not offer it now.

 

[mister_two]

Was the SR 35k? I was just looking at my window sticker, model 3 35,000 and the Standard Range Plus 4,990. for a total of 39,990.

 

[Knightshade]

Was the SR 35k? I was just looking at my window sticker, model 3 35,000 and the Standard Range Plus 4,990. for a total of 39,990.

It was, yes.... (at one point before they killed it I think they bumped to 35.4k or something)

 

[Gasaraki]

Back in 2020, I bought the M3 Standard Range since I saved up just enough for it. Fast forward to now, I had a little extra money so decided to upgrade the M3 to the Plus. I sent a service request (under "Other") and requested the upgrade. About two days later, the local Tesla service center was assigned and uploaded an invoice for $2k + tax. I didn't realize that you're not required to also purchase Autopilot in order to upgrade so I was pleasantly surprised.

I was told to pay the invoice, thru the app, and the car would turn into the Plus in 3 days. Four days go by and nothing, so I call the service center and the the guys there were completely clueless. Apparently, this was the first time they had encountered such an upgrade. They kept telling me to keep waiting while they followed up with the engineering team. I was pretty livid, the advisors there were didn't seem to care, one even told me to start a chargeback on my credit card when all I wanted was, still, the upgrade.

I escalated the issue to Tesla corporate, the rep said this is a "tier 2" issue and a supervisor at the service center will be informed. A day later, the service people said they forgot to fill out a form and send it into the engineer team, hence, they never got the request to upgrade to the Plus. By the end of the day, I checked my app, and boom, the car is now a plus.

No actual software update came thru, just a back end update. Got the extra battery range unlock, saw the immersive sound, couldn't clock the 0-60 acceleration though. Im glad the ordeal is over, and happy that I don't have the lowest model 3 trim anymore lol.

View attachment 820244

So you wanted a charge back after 4 days?

 

[rustnrot]

It is done as of July 19. It did require a few phone calls but our invoice looks identical to that shown above.

Our Standard Range now says on the phone and on the screen Standard Range Plus. We are now up to 224 miles from 204 before. Also our fog lights now work (they are physically installed on this 2019 model).

This was a $35k car in 2019 with the only option we chose was red paint at $2000 extra. We also got $3750 taxes back. At the time, as I recall to get the Standard Range Plus it was many thousand $$ extra since you were also required to buy AutoPilot which we did not want.

Now comes just the range unlock and a few extras like fog lights but no autopilot for an additional $2140 (7% tax here in NC). We are very pleased.

I find it interesting (and confusing) that our car which is minus autopilot, is still called Standard Range Plus.

We did this for a very specific reason. We want to get from Asheville, NC to the London, KY supercharger (visiting relatives in Michigan) in one go without having to visit an "out of our way" supercharger in Knoxville, TN. This is especially urgent now that I-640 around Knoxville is being dug-up and being redone for years to come so going thru Knoxville is off the table for now.

In the past, we could make it to the London, KY supercharger using US-25 but would arrive with barely 1% left and having to keep our speed in check to make it there. We now expect to go from Asheville, to London, KY stress-free!

 

[yong]

"We are now up to 224 miles from 204 before", 224/204 is the total miles? Or 90% charge files?

 

[3sr+buyer]

Was the SR 35k? I was just looking at my window sticker, model 3 35,000 and the Standard Range Plus 4,990. for a total of 39,990.

Tesla Car Price History indicates that an SR (not +) trim was offered from February 28, 2019 to November 15, 2020, most of the time at $35,000, but at $35,400 for a few months in 2019. It was also only orderable by phone or in-person for most of the time it was offered ('off the menu" or "otm" in the spreadsheet).

The SR had the same hardware as SR+, but with software limitation on battery capacity and not enabling some features.

 

[3sr+buyer]

"We are now up to 224 miles from 204 before", 224/204 is the total miles? Or 90% charge files?

For 2020, the EPA range of the SR+ was 250 miles, while the EPA range of the SR was 220 miles, according to Fuel Economy of 2020 Tesla Model 3

That suggests that the OP's car's battery has had some capacity loss, which is expected since it is an NCA chemistry battery.

 

[rustnrot]

"We are now up to 224 miles from 204 before", 224/204 is the total miles? Or 90% charge files?

Those are the total 100% miles the car now displays. The rated miles for a Standard Range Plus at the time this car was purchased was 240 miles. Therefore, we have 16 miles of battery degradation.