I'm with Bonnie, this is great news. It will be some years before I need to upgrade my Roadster pack, but it's wonderful to see that there's a future to the platform.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
New Roadster Goodies for 2014
- Thread starter hjr
- Start date
Pffyt. All this pissing and moaning about some seriously good news. It will help resale value. YAY. It's improved range. YAY. It's something better than nothing. YAY. It's something this owner wants. YAY YAY YAY.
Not raining on my parade. Nope. Totally happy about this. And I'm sure plenty of other owners are, also Glass half full or half empty? Who cares? Top it off, dammit & let's move on.
Well said! I'm thrilled. Better start saving your pennies though. The upgrade won't be cheap. When I bought the replacement battery option I knew something like this would probably happen. I guessed at the time that if they came out with a larger capacity pack that we would get a huge discount. Hope that's how they do it.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
NigelM
Recovering Member
I welcome the news but I'm going to throw in two notes of caution:
1. I believe a 400 mile battery may well require other changes (new PEM anyone?) plus everything is going to be low volume, hand assembled. It's going to be expensive no matter what.
2. Let's wait and see on timing. This seems to have been dropped into the tail end of the report/interview/news which suggests to me it's still in idea form. With Model S demand still strong, Model X in beta development, and the gigafactory there's plenty to keep the folks at Tesla occupied for the next two years. We've even been promised things before that have never materialized at all....
1. I believe a 400 mile battery may well require other changes (new PEM anyone?) plus everything is going to be low volume, hand assembled. It's going to be expensive no matter what.
2. Let's wait and see on timing. This seems to have been dropped into the tail end of the report/interview/news which suggests to me it's still in idea form. With Model S demand still strong, Model X in beta development, and the gigafactory there's plenty to keep the folks at Tesla occupied for the next two years. We've even been promised things before that have never materialized at all....
Guys, Solar City is a separate company than Tesla, just because they "can" use it doesn't mean that they will.
On another note, did Tesla confirm the Roadster upgrade? I didn't see it on Twitter or G+, Press Release... And, I'm not on FB, so did they confirm that there?
spaceballs
Member
I might be more obsessed, since I have one roadster without an ESS, and another roadster with an modded ESS to make it run.
This might cause me to change my current plans, as I was going to do something interesting for the roadster without the ESS but I guess wait until I see what the price of the new ESS will be.
pharma5
Roadster F#25, Model 3 #36xx
Awesome. While there are certainly different preferences on Range vs. other attributes in a new pack (see old survey), this has to be very very good news for anyone who wants to see continued attention and support for the Roadster.
Hopefully TMC Connect will be on top of any follow-up details in a few days.:wink:
Hopefully TMC Connect will be on top of any follow-up details in a few days.:wink:
Nigel, your caution on timing is reasonable, but I don't think it will be anything like a two year's wait which your comment somewhat implied it could drag out to.
You may not have seen this, but in the past month or so (I think it was the annual shareholder's meeting), the Roadster Goodie came up and Elon said (paraphrasing "yeah, I've said something... before year's end... uh... I did promise... we'll do it, we'll have this for Roadster owner's this year). So while there may be slippage, I think it's very likely it this is currently targeted for rolling out in the next 6 months. I think we'll see it in place by next spring.
I'm also super happy about this. Even if I don't take it straight away, to be able to say it's just been confirmed we're getting 400 mile range is extremely useful for educating the masses.
Simply changing the capacity will not require a new PEM. But if they add more power, they'll need a new PEM, new gauges and probably a new motor. Supercharging will require changes to the PEM but hard to say how much because it would be bypassed. All we can do is speculate at this point what they will offer.
As for speculation on the cells to be used: In their presentation from 5 years ago, Panasonic had 4.0 Ah cells in production by now...
I'm confused as to why you think it's "the right thing" to sell this upgrade at cost. Tesla is a for-profit company and there would be little motivation for them to make improvements to our cars if they didn't make a profit. It's not like there's anything wrong with my Roadster the way it is. They're already long on goodwill and it will only improve with this upgrade regardless of how much they charge.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
AFAIK, it's not in production yet (so a delay from the original timeline; although there are rumors that it is going to be out soon as the NCR18650C). However, Panasonic does have a new 3600mAh (NCR18650G) cell in production now that wasn't in the original timeline.
Also, regarding this talk of a lighter pack requiring crash testing: That might be true if the car was still in production, but is it true of selling the pack as a subsequent upgrade? What if the pack was sold through the aftermarket?
Above calculation assumes weight won't change at all.
I bet new pack's weight will be just that much lower that they won't have to change anything else on the car i.e. suspension etc. Just replace the pack, load new FW and wroom. Maybe baybe even SC access (with 4hm range, SC is not that crytical
Car will ride a little bit harder (and higher) because of lower weight and be a bit more efficient resulting in super-linear scaling of range.
Model S uses battery tech from ~2011 with some added chemistry tweaks)
Today is 2014 and normal 8%/year improvements mean these cells should have ~15% higher capacity for same weight. They can afford to choose more expensive run and get even higher capacity for same weight.
One should get a hold on a single roadster and MS cells and weigh them.
Alexandersims
Member
Have you read the battery replacement contract? I believe mine says that it will replace the current battery with one that is 'at least 53kWh' or something to that effect.
When I was told that I wondered whether it would open up the option of it covering a higher density pack, thats actually 50% of the reason I took it, the other 50% was because it was my first EV and I wanted some peace of mind
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
Tesla can't play a game of offering it and then selling it through the aftermarket to avoid any regulatory requirements. For both legal and ethical reasons, it would be a huge mistake.
- - - Updated - - -
Plenty have chimed in on the PEM. We'll have to wait and see on the cost. Regarding timing. The BIG news is that the 'good news for Roadster owners' is larger range pack. Not the timing of the delivery of the larger range pack.
-back to celebrating-
What if the aftermarket was just Tesla Performance Accessories llc? When Honda offers upgrades through Mugen or BMW through JCW Garages or the like, do they have to recertify?
Regarding the cell size calculations, we've been around this before. I'm 99% certain Martin Eberhard confirmed on his blog that his Roadster and all production ones use 2.4Ah cells.
Regarding the cell size calculations, we've been around this before. I'm 99% certain Martin Eberhard confirmed on his blog that his Roadster and all production ones use 2.4Ah cells.
This is fantastic news for our resale values guys Im not sure how tesla will charge for this upgrade as it could be quite extensive meaning also expensive. Maybe a battery lease like Nissan would be the best way. Otherwise there's danger of it being priced too high to be worthwhile for a 3 year + old car. Who wants to spend £20k plus on an upgrade for an ageing car? Free or cheap or lease options are the only way it will be worth it though IMO.
Im not sure how tesla will charge for this upgrade as it could be quite extensive meaning also expensive. Maybe a battery lease like Nissan would be the best way. Otherwise there's danger of it being priced too high to be worthwhile for a 3 year + old car. Who wants to spend £20k plus on an upgrade for an ageing car? Free or cheap or lease options are the only way it will be worth it though IMO.Similar threads
