UK - model 3 Performance is a £3700 upgrade - what is it without? an AWD?

[googlepeakoil]

I don't know if this is a UK only thing.
Option is choose:
Std Range Plus - £38,900
Performance - £48,590.

Then you click through to page 2 and it says
Performance upgrade - £3700.
Includes:

• 20” Performance Wheels
• Performance Brakes
• Carbon fibre spoiler
• Lowered suspension
• Aluminium alloy pedals
• Increased top speed from 145mph to 162mph
• Track Mode

So what is the car if you don't tick "performance upgrade"? Is it just an AWD?
I assume the near £10k price difference gets you AWD and the 75kW pack. Then £3700 takes it to the "true" performance version.
If it is this why don't they offer AWD as the £10k more price without making you click to performance from page 1?
I'm not interested in performance. Would actually like a medium / long range version, but it's a bit odd.

 

[navt]

So what is the car if you don't tick "performance upgrade"?

It's a P- as often referred to (I personally refer to it as P-less).

You get the premium interior, dual-motors, the range and acceleration of the full P but on 18" aero wheels without the upgraded suspension and brakes.

For now (some would say forever) the LR is unavailable in all markets. Your choice is SR+ or P+/P-. I cannot make sense of any of Tesla/Elon's recent decisions but I have been promised and I am sticking to my LR AWD.

 

[sixela]

For now (some would say forever) the LR is unavailable in all markets.

Nope -- just go to the China page. RWD SR+ is now unavailable for new orders until GF3 opens SR+ production, but the next option up the food chain is a Fremont-built RWD LR.

If they are making P- getting you an AWD LR isn't exactly hard -- it's just a software switch to toggle ;-). That model is no longer being advertised/sold in RHD markets, but the AWD LR is alive and well in the EU-minus-UK configurator (and in the US configurator).

 

[GrantV67]

Nope -- just go to the China page. RWD SR+ is now unavailable for new orders until GF3 opens SR+ production, but the next option up the food chain is a Fremont-built RWD LR.

If they are making P- getting you an AWD LR isn't exactly hard -- it's just a software switch to toggle ;-). That model is no longer being advertised/sold in RHD markets, but the AWD LR is alive and well in the EU-minus-UK configurator (and in the US configurator).

It would be ideal if they would offer the P- option with the 19" sport wheels as not keen on the 18" aero wheels, but, sadly, not available on the UK configurator page.

 

[alexGS]

It would be ideal if they would offer the P- option with the 19" sport wheels as not keen on the 18" aero wheels, but, sadly, not available on the UK configurator page.

Your options are now the same as we have in NZ, with effectively three models but only really two - which has probably saved Tesla some homologation costs. For example, in the Australian market, they only had to get two models approved under the Australian Design Rules. The Performance option pack doesn’t count as a third model.

Realistically the Performance-without-upgrade must be practically identical to the AWD Long Range model offered elsewhere; the only difference being that you get a little faster acceleration and higher top speed. Neither of which you probably wanted, if the long-range aspect appeals.

Remember that the SR+ with one motor (RWD) and the standard 18” aero wheels (which can be used as alloy wheels with their covers removed) is the most efficient in watt-hours per mile, so although it doesn’t have the large battery, the range may not be as inferior to the Performance as you would expect.

-Alex

 

[-DB-]

is a Fremont-built RWD LR.

I thought this was confirmed as discontinued this week? A sales rep said he had an email from HQ confirming same I think?

 

[sixela]

It's discontinued for Europe, RHD markets and the US. If you go to the Chinese configurator you'll see that it's not discontinued for that market at all.

Here's the Google-translated configurator. The first option is badly translated: the original text says it's the Chinese-built SR+, with a late delivery estimate because it will only be sold once GF3 in Shangai is producing them.

The next one in the list is RWD LR. These are available now and are built in Fremont.

What this all means is that for the moment in the slots dedicated to UK production RWD LR is no longer planned to be manufactured (if/until Tesla changes its mind).

But that is neither an absolute that holds in all markets, and not irreversible: if you can produce P- you can produce RWD LR, since it's basically the same car minus the front drive (and the front wheel section of the SR+).

Even the two ships' worth of RWD LR for Europe were officially "not there" in the configurator and announced from the start (when they became off-menu orderable items) as a limited production run.

 

[sixela]

Tesla doesn't want you to buy RWD LR for the moment: they are battery cell constrained, so they'd prefer to either sell more SR+ or sell AWD/P- instead, which eats more battery cells but has better margins.

But the model is doggedly popular (in the EU many reservation holders were obviously not budging and not ordering AWD, and Tesla caved in to see if RWD LR would convert these reservations into orders -- it was a good bet, they're all sold now), and if they become less battery-cell-constrained, I would bet that it would rise from the ashes.

There is also this, in an internal mail about what to do with RWD LR orders to try to convert to Q2 AWD orders once they ran out of RWD LRs:

"

• If no suitable options are available to match the customer preference then they can maintain their current order – their delivery will likely be delayed

"

It says delayed, which would appear to imply that if the customer really doesn't budge at some point Tesla would still consider fulfilling the order; but I think that the delay could end up to be veeeeery long indeed, if they decide not to schedule RWD LR production.

Granted, some of these orders were actually not maintained but cancelled, esp. when coming from lease companies, so perhaps Tesla decided that they didn't want "zombie orders" to hang around.