Roadster 1.5 prices if there is no 3.0 upgrade

[TOBASH]

Guys, this is why I spoke in another thread of crowdfunding an aftermarket battery system that might even allow Chadmeo/supercharging (Yeah, I know I'm misspelling the Chad thing).

Once we reverse engineer the system we can approach Tesla with a request to allow suoercharging and to allow aftermarket batteries.

It seems obvious that some things will fall off the map as new tech evolves. Some batteries will disappear. The only reliable way to ensure we all have access to new batteries is to think outside the box and reverse engineer what is available. Tesla does not seem to want to move on its own but with enough support this community can move forward without them OR get them interested after the fact.

MHO

 

[ecarfan]

Guys, this is why I spoke in another thread of crowdfunding an aftermarket battery system that might even allow Chadmeo/supercharging (Yeah, I know I'm misspelling the Chad thing).
Once we reverse engineer the system we can approach Tesla with a request to allow suoercharging and to allow aftermarket batteries.

I appreciate your innovative approach but I seriously doubt that Tesla would ever open up their Supercharger network to Roadsters modified by third parties.
If there was an aftermarket replacement battery for the 1.5 cars I would be interested in it depending of course on the price and the warranty. My concern would be that potentially an aftermarket battery could cause a problem with the PEM or some other Roadster component and that Telsa would decline to perform repairs on my car.

 

[hcsharp]

I know nothing about the technology, but I find it hard to believe that Tesla intentionally omitted the 1.5 from the upgrade. My theory is that they were rushed to make the announcement by 9/1 and had to pass on the adjustment for the 1.5, due to timing issues. If so, I just hope that they continue on the path to make the proper adjustments needed to allow the 1.5 the same benefits as later models. If that doesn't happen, it will disproportionately impact the values between the 1.5s vs the 2.0 & 2.5s. That would be a quite an unkind gesture to the early adopters!

I agree with this theory. They had to announce something by "August" but hadn't finished dev or validation for the 1.5s. With MX coming out and autopilot late there is a critical shortage of resources right now so they had to put something on hold. Unfortunately it was the 1.5 pack. They will come back to it eventually. Just my theory.

No, you're not wrong. I should have said 'replacement batteries'. This just isn't new information. They haven't made new batteries, to the best of my knowledge, for a very long time. The fact that the upgrade excluded 1.5s is more than annoying, but somehow that conversation morphed into proclaiming that 1.5s were stranded. And I'm curious as to how we arrived at that conclusion.

I agree. It's a mystery to me why anyone thinks there won't be replacement packs available for 1.5s. Once again, it's really an epic communication fail that they aren't giving us more info. I think we need to bring this to their attention.

 

[ecarfan]

I agree with this theory. They had to announce something by "August" but hadn't finished dev or validation for the 1.5s. With MX coming out and autopilot late there is a critical shortage of resources right now so they had to put something on hold. Unfortunately it was the 1.5 pack. They will come back to it eventually. Just my theory...It's a mystery to me why anyone thinks there won't be replacement packs available for 1.5s. Once again, it's really an epic communication fail that they aren't giving us more info. I think we need to bring this to their attention.

Henry, I respect your opinion and your years of experience with the Roadster. But if that theory is correct, that the new battery for the 1.5 cars has simply been delayed for whatever reason, why doesn't Tesla just tell us that right now?
I know, Tesla is terrible at communication. But with the new 2.0/2.5 battery now officially for sale, if a new 1.5 battery was planned, is in development, but has been delayed for whatever reason, I think we would have been told by now. So I would suggest that you are engaging in wishful thinking. I would like to be proven wrong! I hope I am wrong...

 

[bonnie]

I agree with this theory. They had to announce something by "August" but hadn't finished dev or validation for the 1.5s. With MX coming out and autopilot late there is a critical shortage of resources right now so they had to put something on hold. Unfortunately it was the 1.5 pack. They will come back to it eventually. Just my theory.

I agree. It's a mystery to me why anyone thinks there won't be replacement packs available for 1.5s. Once again, it's really an epic communication fail that they aren't giving us more info. I think we need to bring this to their attention.

Henry, I respect your opinion and your years of experience with the Roadster. But if that theory is correct, that the new battery for the 1.5 cars has simply been delayed for whatever reason, why doesn't Tesla just tell us that right now?
I know, Tesla is terrible at communication. But with the new 2.0/2.5 battery now officially for sale, if a new 1.5 battery was planned, is in development, but has been delayed for whatever reason, I think we would have been told by now. So I would suggest that you are engaging in wishful thinking. I would like to be proven wrong! I hope I am wrong...

fwiw, I agree with Henry on this. The comms group might not have even known that part of owner group was excluded, if engineering didn't let them know beforehand (a different kind of fail, but one nonetheless). The fact that the order page didn't specifically note that 1.5s were not eligible supports the fact that this information might not have been shared internally as it should have been.

Taking it a step further, if I were in comms, I'd be demanding that engineering let me know exactly when the 1.5 version would be ready, so I could prepare a message to 1.5 owners - and not happy with an answer of 'all our resource is on X'. I'm sure this will be sorted out soon.

 

[ecarfan]

Bonnie, I really do hope that you and Henry are correct!

 

[bonnie]

Bonnie, I really do hope that you and Henry are correct!

Me, too.

 

[supersnoop]

Taking it a step further, if I were in comms, I'd be demanding that engineering let me know exactly when the 1.5 version would be ready, so I could prepare a message to 1.5 owners - and not happy with an answer of 'all our resource is on X'. I'm sure this will be sorted out soon.

Bonnie's absolutely correct here. What do you expect Tesla to say? "Opps, 1.5 delay; update soonish. Srry"

It was more than a week before they even realized the current offering wasn't compatible. I spoke to a store manager and former Roadster driver days after that news broke, and he hadn't even heard about it yet. We'll hear something when they can answer the questions, not just create new questions.

 

[smac]

Problem with this communications theory is they have absolutely no qualms with leaving this wide open to questions even on the 2.0/2.5 cars.

So far all that has been announced is a price, no timescales, and a DEFINITIVE "we won't upgrade 1.5s"

I had a conversation with Rockville SC about my recent "tete a tete" with a Ford truck. I casually ask if he had any info on the battery upgrade. He may have chosen poor wording when he said that the " process will be very time consuming since the battery and PEM will be sent to Freemont to be changed. We have no real dates and can't really schedule until They ( Tesla) tells us. They are waiting to see how much interest there is before they decide to go ahead with it"

Not sure what that means........

Now I know SC staff often aren't the best source of "official" info. But I thought the above was very interesting (my emphasis). Cynically, by barring 1.5s (which are the cars most likely to see the value proposition having older packs) they are almost setting this up to fail

 

[spiderguy]

Henry, I respect your opinion and your years of experience with the Roadster. But if that theory is correct, that the new battery for the 1.5 cars has simply been delayed for whatever reason, why doesn't Tesla just tell us that right now?
I know, Tesla is terrible at communication. But with the new 2.0/2.5 battery now officially for sale, if a new 1.5 battery was planned, is in development, but has been delayed for whatever reason, I think we would have been told by now. So I would suggest that you are engaging in wishful thinking. I would like to be proven wrong! I hope I am wrong...

Barry, I think that if they knew the answer to that, they would convey it to the public. I speculate that they don't know how long the solution will take and to exacerbate the problem, they simply don't have the bandwidth to address the issue right now. Thus, the combination of 1) uncertainty surrounding the possibility of extending the range for 1.5 vehicles, 2) inability to ascertain the time needed to create a solution and 3) insufficient bandwidth to even work on the problem, leads Tesla to their current stance of remaining silent. I surmise that they simply don't know yet!

 

[hcsharp]

...
Taking it a step further, if I were in comms, I'd be demanding that engineering let me know exactly when the 1.5 version would be ready, so I could prepare a message to 1.5 owners - and not happy with an answer of 'all our resource is on X'. I'm sure this will be sorted out soon.

I have a theory on why they haven't done that, too. First, it's possible they haven't received a strong message from us that a lot of people are upset and waiting for answers, so comms hasn't demanded info from engineering yet. Second, Engineering is so overwhelmed right now that they don't even know when they'll be able to go back to work on this and they may not have gotten far enough to know how much time it will actually take. This is just my theory.
edit: I see spiderguy already posted this theory.

One thing I do know is that Tesla has a strong desire to support early Roadster owners. I know this from first-hand information. They just might not be in a good position to do it right now. Don't give up.

 

[dpeilow]

I don't buy the comms theory, sorry.

They could settle it in less time than it takes me to write this post by changing the 3.0 webpage to read "Currently only available for 2.0/2.5 cars. Roadster 1.5 upgrade available at a later date".

They must be aware of the anguish this has caused through here, through questions to customer services, service centres and online. It would take one phone call for Ricardo Reyes to ask Elon are we doing this yes/no?

We know they've even had to waste time refunding people. Surely if there was any ambiguity over an announcement for 1.5 owners they'd bide their time and sit on the cash.

Furthermore, we understood this was being handled by a small dedicated engineering team. I doubt other events are getting in the way. They would know the issues almost in parallel with the 2.x work and the decision to support would then be out of their hands.

 

[smac]

I don't buy the comms theory, sorry.

They could settle it in less time than it takes me to write this post by changing the 3.0 webpage to read "Currently only available for 2.0/2.5 cars. Roadster 1.5 upgrade available at a later date".

As they haven't even set a date for the 2.0/2.5 specifying a later date is moot

 

[asgard]

I have a minor but interesting update. My CPO 1.5 which is less than 2 years into its warranty and had a CAC of over 154.00 and a standard range of 185 miles failed a battery test last Friday during the routine 12K miles service and apparently needed a replacement.

I asked Tesla if I could just pay for the upgrade and wait it out. They said that was not possible and they would just build a new 1.5 battery.

 

[visionik]

Just so I make sure I'm not missing anything, when folks refer to the "Roadster 3.0 page" are you talking about the blog page?

Roadster 3.0 | Tesla Motors

I still haven't seen anything about ordering, prices, specifications, pictures, etc - even though the blog said ordering would start in the spring of this year and Elon tweeted it should be available a month ago. Is any of that available yet?

-V

 

[wiztecy]

I asked Tesla if I could just pay for the upgrade and wait it out. They said that was not possible and they would just build a new 1.5 battery.

That's a step in the right direction, at least if they're continuing production of the older cells the resale prices shouldn't be affected too much. Would be nice if that "not possible" does not translate to never with a newer cell technology.

Just so I make sure I'm not missing anything, when folks refer to the "Roadster 3.0 page" are you talking about the blog page?

Roadster 3.0 | Tesla Motors

I believe they're referring to the shop / order page:

Tesla Accessories and Charging Adapters Roadster 3.0 Battery Upgrade

 

[visionik]

Thank you Wiztecy!

 

[Doug_G]

Moving the petition discussion to a separate thread: Roadster 1.5 Owners Wanting 3.0 Upgrade