Will Tesla ever allow battery upgrades?

[AMPd]

I own a 90kwh battery car and am quite jealous of the recent supercharger speed increases for 100kwh batteries

Anyone think Tesla would ever be willing to upgrade my battery to the higher capacity one? I would be willing to pay of course
I’d be willing to pay up to 10k plus my battery for a higher capacity one that can charge at faster speeds

 

[wk057]

Tesla will never do battery upgrades. There's no money in it for them. Why upgrade your battery and make basically no money? Better for them to sell you a new car, make a nice margin on it, and get a boost to their sales numbers.

$10k plus a 90 pack just isn't enough to make that a worthwhile prospect for them (or anyone else) either, especially considering the 90s are the ugly ducklings of the battery pack lineup.

 

[AMPd]

Tesla will never do battery upgrades. There's no money in it for them. Why upgrade your battery and make basically no money? Better for them to sell you a new car, make a nice margin on it, and get a boost to their sales numbers.

$10k plus a 90 pack just isn't enough to make that a worthwhile prospect for them (or anyone else) either, especially considering the 90s are the ugly ducklings of the battery pack lineup.

That’s unfortunate

 

[richrootes]

I hope you’re wrong, WK.

In places like B.C. Canada the taxes on buying/selling cars are punitive and ridiculous. Personally it would make far more sense for me to be able to upgrade my pack than sell and buy something newer

 

[kev1n]

in the short term, i agree with wk. maybe in the long run after the market dies down. they may consider.

 

[Buddy]

I wonder if Tesla will implement a lease or subscription type deal for batteries.

Similar to what service providers have done with cell phones.

$$ per month for 2 years, full warranty on battery, upgrades cost as accordingly

 

[mswlogo]

Tesla will never do battery upgrades. There's no money in it for them. Why upgrade your battery and make basically no money? Better for them to sell you a new car, make a nice margin on it, and get a boost to their sales numbers.

$10k plus a 90 pack just isn't enough to make that a worthwhile prospect for them (or anyone else) either, especially considering the 90s are the ugly ducklings of the battery pack lineup.

They offer an upgrade for Early Roadsters now. Never say never. It's not meant to be an "upgrade" though. It's to replace old batteries that are shot, it's very expensive but it is a much better battery than the original.

Some Model S folks have got "better" batteries on warranty replacements.
​

I can imagine it possibly happening as an upgrade.

So I wouldn't rule it out.

 

[ewoodrick]

I own a 90kwh battery car and am quite jealous of the recent supercharger speed increases for 100kwh batteries

Anyone think Tesla would ever be willing to upgrade my battery to the higher capacity one? I would be willing to pay of course
I’d be willing to pay up to 10k plus my battery for a higher capacity one that can charge at faster speeds

How often would it be advantageous for you, assuming that you will no longer have free Supercharging

 

[AMPd]

How often would it be advantageous for you, assuming that you will no longer have free Supercharging

Quite often
My wife and I take weekend road trips to the Santa Cruz/Monterey area
Would be nice to have to supercharge less and quicker

Edit: 300-400 mile trips

 

[wk057]

You can say never say never, but I'm definitely saying never here. It's just not going to happen.

They tried this with the 85 to 90 when it came out. Musk even said in an earnings call that they'd offer it.

They wanted $25,000 (+tax) to do the upgrade, including the core return of the 85 pack!

So, being the masochist that I am, I told them to go ahead and do it. Three months later they said they decided not to do upgrades. Basically was buying the new pack, and giving them my not-even-that-old-one for free, and they still wouldn't do it. They tried to sell me on trading up instead.

Even at a ridiculous price that almost no one would pay, they're not going to do it. So doing it for something that would be even remotely reasonable is just never going to happen, either.

There's just no money in it for them.

 

[Petra]

If Tesla found themselves in a situation where cell production greatly exceeded the demand from new car production, then I could see Tesla considering pack upgrades. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense to divert cells away from more profitable new car production.

 

[SSedan]

The market for this is small, too small to work out the logistics, what to do with the old pack, and all the software variation for the new car combinations.

Then you still have to consider that despite the delusions a LOT of folks around here have the rest of the car is just a car and going to see wear and tear like any other car, maybe more given the weight and torque taking a toll on the suspension.

 

[AMPd]

The market for this is small, too small to work out the logistics, what to do with the old pack, and all the software variation for the new car combinations.

Then you still have to consider that despite the delusions a LOT of folks around here have the rest of the car is just a car and going to see wear and tear like any other car, maybe more given the weight and torque taking a toll on the suspension.

If the market is indeed small then there shouldn’t be an issue with logistics.
Not to mention Elon Musk said that tesla would be in the battery recycling business so either way they have to figure out the logistics
I’m sure there’s no software issue that they can’t figure out, in fact wk057 has figured that out
What does wear and tear of the vehicle have to do with wanting more range?

 

[wk057]

Well, also to upgrade to a 100 pack, you either need air suspension or new suspension. There's a couple other "gotchas", but nothing too serious. No software exists for a RWD 100 vehicle, so there's that... but that's addressable one way or another.

 

[SSedan]

Not that rwd 100 software would be that difficult but why prioritize your engineers time to work on old stuff when they could be working on new?

 

[AMPd]

Not that rwd 100 software would be that difficult but why prioritize your engineers time to work on old stuff when they could be working on new?

People will eventually want to upgrade the battery otherwise teslas will be known as throwaway cars
Not everyone can afford a new car. Many will want to purchase an old tesla and replace the battery and they’re good to go.

 

[wk057]

People will eventually want to upgrade the battery otherwise teslas will be known as throwaway cars
Not everyone can afford a new car. Many will want to purchase an old tesla and replace the battery and they’re good to go.

Unfortunately, Teslas are basically throwaway cars.

Tesla does everything they can to make these things difficult to repair/upgrade/etc beyond standard maintenance.

 

[ohmman]

Tesla does everything they can to make these things difficult to repair/upgrade/etc beyond standard maintenance.

Right to Repair legislation has a lot of momentum these days (thankfully). It's possible this will force Tesla's hand at some point. But overall I agree with you. There's no upside for Tesla to offer a pack upgrade today. The only way I see it happening is through a third party, and quite a ways into the future. It's disappointing from a consumer perspective, though.

 

[PaulusdB]

Unfortunately, Tesla's are basically throwaway cars.

Tesla does everything they can to make these things difficult to repair/upgrade/etc beyond standard maintenance.

There already is 'right to repair' legislation in the European Union. See https://www.figiefa.eu/wp-content/uploads/r2rc-newberframeworkbrochure.pdf and http://image-src.bcg.com/BCG-European-Automotive-Aftermarket_tcm85-15523.pdf
It's just a matter of time before someone will hold Tesla accountable, like other OEM's have experienced before.

 

[bob_p]

Musk stated the current battery packs have a lifetime of 300-400K miles and that new battery packs next year will have a 1M mile lifetime.

When Tesla started selling Model S, they briefly considered offering a battery replacement plan, allowing owners to pre-pay for a battery replacement in the future. They quickly dropped the program.

Tesla also supported battery swapping (which may have been done to get some incentive funding) - and that would have eventually created the potential to swap for a pack larger than the owned pack, with the ability to purchase the upgraded pack for the difference in battery value. But Tesla discontinued the battery swapping program.

And since then, there hasn't been any mention of battery swaps or replacements. The only range increases have been with software limited battery packs, when the owner may be able to unlock the extra battery capacity after purchase.

With a 300-400K mile lifetime, Tesla doesn't have much incentive to introduce a battery replacement or upgrade program. Plus, as Tesla introduces technology improvements, there's no guarantee the newer packs will be backwards compatible with the older vehicles.

For anyone planning to purchase a new Tesla (or any EV), you should not count on ever getting a larger battery pack. The rated range at purchase will likely be the maximum you'll ever see, with some degradation over time.

At some point, 3rd parties could get into this business - especially for the much higher volume 3/Y/pickup vehicles, offering to refresh battery packs to restore them to close to the original range - or do an upgrade to long range.

Instead of planning for battery upgrades/replacements, Tesla seems to focusing more on recycling old battery packs and recovering as much of the raw materials as possible, basically allowing them to take old batteries, grind them down and then use those materials to build newer generation battery packs.