Tesla: We are updating all reservation timelines in the next few days

[Snow Drift]

Has Tesla provided their rationale for introducing SR and LR?

My guess is that it is easier to explain to consumers that Long Range goes farther on a charge than Short Range. Explaining what a 75 kWh battery pack means is a lot more involved. Do you want to go short distance or longer? Longer! Ok, buy this one.

They don't have to change the name with incremental improvements. I had a '05 WRX, '08 WRX and '11 WRX...the HP/TQ changed, so did the EPA ratings and mileage, but the name was just WRX. Only Model Year changes to show the difference.

 

[aus1ander]

Tesla has fairly consistently referred to them by range, 220mi and 310mi, which is what I expect they care about most. They do say "normal range" and "long range". "SR" is very much a public construct extended from the abbreviation "LR", you'll find neither of those mentioned by Tesla.

Tesla went to far as to fudge the RWD long range down to 310mi nominal range to match the AWD and Performance 310mi. Looks like they missed on the AWD version using the 220mi pack, as they've had to list it at 215mi range.

Rationale for the different packs, besides larger pack allowing more current and thus more acceleration, is likely based around what makes sense in daily use for car owners. 310mi is for more isolated people, very long commutes, those that want to do a lot of road trips, or those that are going to try own the Model 3 without a place to regularly park at home/work and charge.

Tesla refers to the SR as the "Standard" model under the M3 specifications on tesla.com. I think it makes sense to move away from the size of the battery pack and emphasize the ability of one model to drive significantly longer distances than the other. Most people don't understand the "energy values" of battery packs anyway, and this makes it easier to explain to the public. That being said, I think the LR makes road trips more manageable and is extremely important for cold weather locations where average consumption can double in winter, effectively reducing the range of a 310 mile battery pack to <200 miles.

 

[dhanson865]

Has Tesla provided their rationale for introducing SR and LR?

While admittedly not perfect, the battery energy content is an objective measure useful in comparing the range of different variants of a given model.

Since the M3 will almost certainly get a series of battery upgrades, we will then have to deal with SR+, SR++, LR+, LR++, LR+++ ad nauseam.

I would have expected an 'improvement' like this from e.g. Maserati.

what if the battery upgrades don't increase range? Say they just increase profitability.

Imagine this progression

Year 1 SR = 50 kWh LR = 75 kWh (made up numbers, just an example)
Year 2 SR = 51 kWh LR = 76 kWh (but at lower weight and or cost, less cells per pack)
Year 3 SR = 49 kWh LR = 74 kWh (but at lower weight and or cost, less cells per pack)
Year 4 SR = 52 kWh LR = 77 kWh (still lower weight and or cost than year 1)
Year 5 SR = 53 kWh LR = 78 kWh

and so on.

Maybe they don't want to change the badging, they just want to change the internal parts.

No change in advertised range, no badge change on the rear. Just lower cost of manufacturing and/or higher reliability as battery cells improve.

 

[lklundin]

My guess is that it is easier to explain to consumers that Long Range goes farther on a charge than Short Range. Explaining what a 75 kWh battery pack means is a lot more involved. Do you want to go short distance or longer? Longer! Ok, buy this one.

They don't have to change the name with incremental improvements. I had a '05 WRX, '08 WRX and '11 WRX...the HP/TQ changed, so did the EPA ratings and mileage, but the name was just WRX. Only Model Year changes to show the difference.

It is a fair guess, and as someone who can explain both the difference between power and energy and between a physical entity and its unit, I guess I am not in the target group under consideration for this change.

Unlike your WRX, Tesla does rolling releases, also for its hardware, i.e. they don't go by model year but rather introduce their improvements as soon as they see fit. So while one can naturally state what year a given Tesla was made, two Teslas made the same year may well be different.

In my opinion, Tesla's doing away with the battery energy content makes about as much sense as if a beer producer would stop stating the alcohol content of their product and instead state the increment of each bottle on the BAC (in a given, standard person). YMMV.

And as for the difficulty of understanding the battery energy content, also for a person who cannot state how many pints there are to a gallon, it is easy to just accept that more is better.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Well....At least there is one in the wild.

Tesla Model 3 Performance with Dual Motor badge and carbon spoiler spotted in the wild


No timeline updates though.....sigh.

 

[kengchang]

Tesla moved away from battery size badging when they were caught shipping battery size that doesn't match with the badge and people were threatening to sue

 

[lklundin]

what if the battery upgrades don't increase range? Say they just increase profitability.

Imagine this progression

Year 1 SR = 50 kWh LR = 75 kWh (made up numbers, just an example)
Year 2 SR = 51 kWh LR = 76 kWh (but at lower weight and or cost, less cells per pack)
Year 3 SR = 49 kWh LR = 74 kWh (but at lower weight and or cost, less cells per pack)
Year 4 SR = 52 kWh LR = 77 kWh (still lower weight and or cost than year 1)
Year 5 SR = 53 kWh LR = 78 kWh

and so on.

Maybe they don't want to change the badging, they just want to change the internal parts.

No change in advertised range, no badge change on the rear. Just lower cost of manufacturing and/or higher reliability as battery cells improve.

I am unsure if that forms an argument for or against stating the battery energy content, which as you completely correctly point out is only one of actually a large set of characteristics of the battery pack (described by price, weight, volume, degradation and a bunch of other stuff).

To use a car analogy, several ICE producers use the engine displacement to describe their models, with the accepted perception that more is better (for acceleration and top-speed) and also more expensive and also that over time identical engine displacements may actually still have improved performance.

To me it seems a completely natural part of the transition to electrical transportation that the battery energy content would become an essential characteristic of the vehicle.

 

[SD_Engnr]

Well....At least there is one in the wild.

Tesla Model 3 Performance with Dual Motor badge and carbon spoiler spotted in the wild


No timeline updates though.....sigh.

I don't consider that's really being "in the wild". That's from a Tesla employee in SoCal, while their test drive cars were being prepped (spoiler and badges).

 

[Garlan Garner]

I don't consider that's really being "in the wild". That's from a Tesla employee in SoCal, while their test drive cars were being prepped (spoiler and badges).

I consider it being in the wild.

Its better ( more wild ) than anything Tesla has ever posted about the Performance Version. Tesla isn't saying squat. The only Performance Version Tesla has ever posted was still sitting on the assembly line.

Assembly line = un-wild.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Ok...when is the next few days over?

All of the folks who disagreed with me earlier about this new promise coming to fruition...….Hello?

 

[Bokonon]

Seems like Tesla published a new build of MyTesla to production within the last 15 minutes (timestamped July 19th). As of this update, I finally have a delivery estimate (of Sept - Nov ).

Other than estimates appearing for those of us who ordered in May / early June and did not previously have one, did anyone else's estimates change?

 

[rlb4]

Mine changed today. Still has the same delivery estimate of Sept 18 to Nov 18 but now I have an "edit design" link and the lemon law and order contract links are gone.

 

[Koflach]

Mine changed today. Still has the same delivery estimate of Sept 18 to Nov 18 but now I have an "edit design" link and the lemon law and order contract links are gone.

my edit design link came back today as well. nothing else changed though.

 

[ℬête Noire]

my edit design link came back today as well. nothing else changed though.

Same. Edit is back. Lemon Law link and everything else appears to be the same (including Sept-Nov delivery for AWD).

I think? I think the below links were there before for me? I'd not bothered to check any of them out yet but I think they were all there:

 

[Koflach]

Same. Edit is back. Lemon Law link and everything else appears to be the same (including Sept-Nov delivery for AWD).

I think? I think the below links were there before for me? I'd not bothered to check any of them out yet but I think they were all there:
View attachment 318316

i've had those links available right away. I also have an order agreement link though. My ETA is Aug-Oct.

 

[ℬête Noire]

i've had those links available right away. I also have an order agreement link though. My ETA is Aug-Oct.

Yeah, I have always had that, too. I just cropped the Documents section below there out of that shot.

 

[asianxtreme]

I just got a new page saying: “please review and confirm”. It wants me to go through each of tasks again and confirm. I also have the final estimates including taxes and fees and has a total “due at delivery” sign. Something is happening!

 

[ℬête Noire]

I just got a new page saying: “please review and confirm”. It wants me to go through each of tasks again and confirm. I also have the final estimates including taxes and fees and has a total “due at delivery” sign. Something is happening!

Hooolleeeeee smokes, your post got me to check back (had refreshed less than 5 min ago) and I've got that, too. This time it's got my State Taxes included in the $ total, I'd not seen that before.

 

[Bokonon]

I just got a new page saying: “please review and confirm”. It wants me to go through each of tasks again and confirm. I also have the final estimates including taxes and fees and has a total “due at delivery” sign. Something is happening!

Hooolleeeeee smokes, your post got me to check back (had refreshed less than 5 min ago) and I've got that, too. This time it's got my State Taxes included.

Where are you guys seeing this? Does it just pop up under your "Manage" page?

(Clearly I need to refresh my account more often than every 10 minutes...)

 

[drawfour]

Hooolleeeeee smokes, your post got me to check back (had refreshed less than 5 min ago) and I've got that, too. This time it's got my State Taxes included in the $ total, I'd not seen that before.

Same! I came here to find this thread to report this exact same thing. It asked me to confirm registrants, address, driver's license, and insurance, plus the build. It confirmed my RTA tax (for Seattle-area people, that's a big one which is a percentage of car value paid every year to support the Regional Transit Authority doing some light rail work) and sales tax. So I now have a total $$$ to the penny required, including delivery fee, and subtracting what I've already paid.

But my estimate is still Sep-Nov. I would figure if they were actually close to getting my car ready for an August delivery, they would change that to just say Aug-Oct. Either way, hoping I'm just a little bit closer than I was before.