I think some things on this issue need some clarification, because people keep wanting to take this in a thousand different directions that have little to nothing to do with the actual problem.
I think we all agree that Tesla makes some pretty awesome cars. I really like both of mine. I don't think that is in question.
The horsepower related concerns and the 0-60 time concerns (rollout vs non-rollout) are independent issues, even if they did start at the same time.
The horsepower related concerns and the range increase concerns (285 miles at 65 MPH is pretty much impossible, sorry, and the P85D does not have more range than the P85) are indepentent issues, even if they did start at the same time.
Now for this particular on-topic point...
The issue I personally have is that Tesla allowed customers to believe that the P85D produced substantially more horsepower than it actually does. The introduction of the "motor power" term was clarified by folks at Tesla at the time to be "similar to an ICE at the flywheel" to myself and others I've spoken with. Many enthusiasts also figured that this number was an "at the shaft" type number. I'm reasonably certain no one, myself included, expected 691 HP at the wheels.
Additionally, Tesla only used the "motor power" term on the website, and no where else (that I'm aware). Everywhere else, and in every conversation/interview/etc that I've had or seen with Tesla had no such qualifier. It was a 691 HP car as far as everyone was concerned. Tesla even confirmed speculation that the car would have "substantially improved high speed performance" over the P85 due to the added horsepower.
The majority of early P85D buyers, myself included, had no opportunity to test drive the vehicle prior to delivery and had few options except to trust Tesla's sales and marketing folks on the matter. Personally, I'd already purchased two Model S that met or exceeded their advertised specs, why would Tesla fudge the numbers for the P85D?
Only after more people started publicly questioning the 691 HP number did they simply remove it. No explanation, no answers to inquiries, nothing. Just remove the number and hope no one notices? I mean, if it were in fact a legitimate measure of the car's performance, why remove it?
Some time previously the website clearly advertised a coming "free over the air software update" to increase high speed performance. For completeness, this advertising was there AFTER the 3.2 to 3.1 "0"-60 improvement update (yes I put quotes around the 0 in "0"-60 when referring to the fake with-rollout times that are more like 5-60). Many, myself included, figured that this might be the update the unlocked some or all of our missing horsepower. We now know that free OTA update turned into a costly hardware update that still doesn't unlock the full 691 HP (and as of this writing still does not exist as a retrofit, paid or otherwise, in a customer's hands yet).
Then comes a cryptic blog post nearly a year later that basically admits the original power number was not a true power production number, and was more of a slap in the face, IMO, to those who know what we're talking about. Sorry, Mr. Straubel, but 1 HP is still 1 HP, and I don't care about performance at various altitudes vs ICE engines which had nothing to do with the concerns.
Now Tesla finally posts the real horsepower output of the car, 463 HP... a number that myself and others had already figured out within a reasonable margin with real world testing.
"But Tesla is great!" "Tesla is saving the world!" "OMG we need Tesla!" <-- While statements like these may (or may not) be true, it doesn't affect this particular situation.
The fact is that Tesla fudged the facts to fit the situation. At that time it appears the goal was getting as many Q4'2015 deliveries as possible, no matter what, which meant selling P85Ds like crazy. Had Tesla actually put the real specs on the specs page last year as they stand today, I would not have bought a P85D. It's still the same car. The actual specs haven't actually changed. But the *advertised* specs have changed significantly since I placed my order. Given what I know today, I would have been much happier with an 85D, or simply keeping my P85.
For completeness, let's take a look at the few major bullet points along those lines:
- Advertised in October 2014 when I placed my order
- 691 HP (274 HP more than the P85)
- 285 miles of range (20 miles more than the P85)
- 0-60 in 3.2 seconds (full second faster than P85)
- Autopilot in a few months
- Reality:
- 463 HP (-228 HP)
- 253 miles of range (-32 miles / -12 from the P85)
- 0-60 in 3.5 seconds (true 0-60)
- Autopilot released 10/15/2015 (so, +6 months best case, +8 months or more really)
People who traded up from a P85 paid a significant amount of depreciation to do so with the promise of better high speed performance thanks to 274 more horsepower, better range due to the efficiency improvements of the dual motor setup, shave a full second from 0-60, and autopilot features only to have paid that same premium for 46 horsepower, a significant range penalty, 0-60 times that actually differ by closer to a half-second due to the switch to using 1-ft rollout without telling anyone, and a year wait for autopilot.
Yes, the non-horsepower related bullet points are problems. But this thread is about the horsepower issue, so lets get back to that.
So, actual +46 HP vs advertised +274 HP (or +211 HP depending on which P85 number you feel like using). I don't know about you, but if I take a 400 HP car and add 200+ HP to it by adding minimal weight, I'm going to get some pretty dramatic improvements, and not just in 0-60 times. These are the improvements that were touted by Tesla when I was buying my P85D. Faster highway passing. Much faster top speed runs. Etc etc etc.
In reality, we received less than 20% of the increased performance we paid for, yet according to many here I'm in the wrong because I feel like Tesla cheated me and used me to boost Q4'14 sales.
I keep holding on to a little hope that Tesla is going to surprise us with something that will make us early P85D buyers have at least a little faith restored in the company... but that's probably just wishful thinking at this point. I'm honestly not 100% sure what their next move is. I'm half expecting an announcement this week of the P100D with the tag line of having "twice the power of the P85D" with Tesla comparing the newly advertised actual horsepower of the P85D with a car having two large motor's combined "motor power." Add to that a new 0-60 metric that uses some random magazine's method of testing that subtracts the first 42-ft of rollout from the time to better show the meaning of life the universe and everything in the 0-60 time to get a mind blowing 1.9 second 0-60 to plaster all over the place while they're at it. Might as well say it has a 500 mile range too. Later they'll include the note that to get that range requires the double battery capacity feature that will be available free via OTA updates in several months.
