Personally, I did not think that the D option on the standard 85 adds enough performance or range enhancement to merit the $5000. 0-60 in 5.2s for 85D vs. 5.4s for 85. Same HP, slight improvement in range. If you truly need AWD, it would be worth it, but I did not find it compelling on any other attribute. It's too bad it did not come with a modest performance gain to put it midway between the 85 and P85D. I do hope other buyers will be more enthusiatic about the D option than I was. Maybe Tesla will find some way to squeeze a little more performance or range through software enhancements. Anyway, I'm excited to get my standard 85 right at the end of Q1.
The short term significance may be that this demonstrates what Tesla may do with the Model 3. 340 miles plus 20 to spare on a 70 kWh pack shows that Tesla is capable of 5 mi/kWh. If they reach 400 miles, that's 5.7 mi/kWh! Can they translate this to the Model 3 design and get 230 mile range on 40kWh starting at $35k, 315 miles on 55 kWh at $45k and 400 miles on 70kWh at $55k? That would be an awesome line up. I don't think the auto industry sees this coming, but Tesla is proving that it is technically feasible.
Since the auto industry, and analysts, don't see it coming that is why it probably will not have an impact on the short term price of TSLA. Agree that if you hypothesis is correct about the mi/kWh for Gen3 that will have a significant impact when that comes to fruition several months ( a year or two?) from now.
