Tesla will not upgrade the 40 or 60kWh Model S to 85/90kWh (confirmed)

[Fiver]

That doesn't explain the owner that swapped out their 60 battery with an 85 for ~$18k from Tesla. A 40 has a 60 battery. Tesla would be getting back a 60 battery, just the same as the aforementioned S60 owner. Sure, maybe the 90 will cost more than the 85 battery, but surely not be 42-45k for a swap if the owner is trading in.

Besides that one guy a few years ago, has there been a single other example of someone actually getting Tesla to do this 60 to 85 swap?

One car upgraded out of how many sold? I'm pretty sure Tesla doesn't really want to be in the business of selling bigger car batteries to existing owners. They would much rather be selling a new (higher capacity) Tesla to an existing owner.

 

[TexasEV]

Besides that one guy a few years ago, has there been a single other example of someone actually getting Tesla to do this 60 to 85 swap?

One car upgraded out of how many sold? I'm pretty sure Tesla doesn't really want to be in the business of selling bigger car batteries to existing owners. They would much rather be selling a new (higher capacity) Tesla to an existing owner.

It's just that one guy as far as anyone knows, in 2013. What's strange is he is a EV blogger so Tesla knew everyone would hear about it immediately. You would think he'd be the last person they would choose to make an exception for, if they didn't want to make a habit of offering this to owners of 60s. Or maybe it was after this one experience that Tesla decided it wasn't something they wanted to continue doing.

 

[tga]

I'm actively looking for an S40 right now! Know anyone that has one for sale? I'm a little tired of the Volt, TBH.

Here's one in NH, but, at $53k asking, it's at least $10K overpriced (considering you can buy a CPO S60 for that):

https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/cto/5103623629.html

 

[yobigd20]

Does this mean that when 90s are gone, and 100s are gone, and 110s are gone, if I want to upgrade to a 120kW pack from an 85kw they'll be like "nope sorry, must trade up instead" ??

 

[Krugerrand]

Does this mean that when 90s are gone, and 100s are gone, and 110s are gone, if I want to upgrade to a 120kW pack from an 85kw they'll be like "nope sorry, must trade up instead" ??

It's possible but nobody knows, do they? At some point everything becomes un-upgradeable. The S85 is a product of 2012. It's now three years later that the 90 is being offered. By the time 90s, 100s and 110s are gone will you still be driving the same car? Some people might, sure. A lot won't. Those that are should still have a useful vehicle, they just won't be able to go 350? miles on a charge. It's not a big deal.

 

[yobigd20]

By the time 90s, 100s and 110s are gone will you still be driving the same car? Some people might, sure. A lot won't.

since this car cost me 3x more than I would spend normally on a car, I plan on driving it 3x longer, hence about 21 years. lets see -> 50k miles/yr times 20 years = about a million miles haha drive units better get more reliable before my 8 yr unlimited mile warranty is up.

 

[Cyclone]

Does this mean that when 90s are gone, and 100s are gone, and 110s are gone, if I want to upgrade to a 120kW pack from an 85kw they'll be like "nope sorry, must trade up instead" ??

My personal opinion is that this is because they are still battery constrained. So allowing upgrades cuts back on the number of cars they can produce. Once the Gigafactory is running, they should no longer be battery constrained and be more amiable to upgrading cars. Whether 60s and 70s ever enter that picture, unknown - but I think the 85 will continue to be.

 

[nleggatt]

Eventually they will need to allow up grades. Either that or in 20 years when the huge variety of packs are failing: 40,60,70,85,90,100,110,120,130 they will be stuck making replacement packs for those older cars. It would make more sense to allow upgrades and get the money than tell people the car is completely useless suddenly.

 

[MostlyStock]

I wouldn’t expect to see Tesla selling battery upgrades for the current Model S until a after it has been fully redesigned. If they follow the standard 7 year cycle then maybe we will see battery upgrades in 2019. Also Tesla could get away with only offering one replacement battery size. Some cars would just need new coil springs (~$300) based on the weight difference. Lastly I wouldn’t expect a Model S to last 20 years as it has way too many electronics that will fail before then.

 

[Krugerrand]

since this car cost me 3x more than I would spend normally on a car, I plan on driving it 3x longer, hence about 21 years. lets see -> 50k miles/yr times 20 years = about a million miles haha drive units better get more reliable before my 8 yr unlimited mile warranty is up.

Are you going to claim you didn't understand this (Model S) was new technology and likely to improve over time?

 

[Fiver]

Lastly I wouldn’t expect a Model S to last 20 years as it has way too many electronics that will fail before then.

You can use a cell phone from 15 years ago, doesn't mean it is a pleasant experience. The current touchscreen UI speed and overall OS is going to seem downright ancient in 15 years. While they have been very good about keeping older cars up to date at some point they will need to cut off the older hardware. I'm glad they aren't pulling an Apple and killing older hardware quickly, but never the less, they will need to cut off updates on the older cars at some point.
Perhaps they will offer a console CPU upgrade with the battery upgrade to keep things running speedy.

 

[Gizmotoy]

You can use a cell phone from 15 years ago, doesn't mean it is a pleasant experience. The current touchscreen UI speed and overall OS is going to seem downright ancient in 15 years. While they have been very good about keeping older cars up to date at some point they will need to cut off the older hardware. I'm glad they aren't pulling an Apple and killing older hardware quickly, but never the less, they will need to cut off updates on the older cars at some point.
Perhaps they will offer a console CPU upgrade with the battery upgrade to keep things running speedy.

Even Apple's "quickly" still treats a generation old as a first-class citizen, with likely support for between 2 and 4 hardware generations old. As far as we can tell, we're still on the first center panel hardware generation with the first expected rev coming alongside Model X. We won't see Tesla starting to make those kinds of decisions until there are multiple generations of hardware in service.