Maybe 'immensely' is too much. But say if a 500+ mile range model or a <10 mins charging model comes out in a few years.
As with any continuously evolving technology (like smartphones, television, cameras, etc), the best model to buy is always next year's model. At some point you need to freeze the technology and appreciate what you have got and use.
Plsu, even if we got 500 miles in 2-3 years, that's still 2-3 years you could be driving an S. When the upgrades come out, you can always sell and get the latest and greatest.
As a P85 owner, I'm waiting till the X launch. I believe there will be an S refresh in early 2016. I also think Tesla will have more incentives (i.e. no money down on lease) at the end of the year to get north of 50K vehicles delivered. All speculation of course, but my gut tells me to keep the momentum going, they will need to roll the new X features into the S and maybe tweak the body/interior a bit (new nose...).
Come on guys.... remember when cars changed every year!!! all modern technology will be on a curve to improve. Enjoy what you have, then upgrade sometime in the future when there is enough difference to make it worthwhile.
Simple, Tesla will improve the technology along the way. My car was bought with a certain feature set and that is just fine by me.
If those are specifically the items you're worried about then you have nothing to worry about. The odds of a true battery 'break through' are nile... it's incremental advances of ~5%/yr... if we're lucky. Took Tesla 3 years to go from 85 => 90kWh. Fast charging is already near the upper limits of whats really practicable. 350 amps is A LOT of current to push though those wires. Even the bump from 90kWh on the 'A' packs to 135kW on the newer pack only saves ~5 minutes on an 80% charge. The big advances were AWD and autopilot. Autopilot was a bit of a surprise to me... thought it's still not working; but AWD was pretty anticipated by most people that had even a casual conversation with anyone from Tesla.
I agree with what you said but a car is a bit different, I think primarily because of their cost. A significant (albeit well-off) proportion of smartphone, television and camera buyers can afford to replace their hardware every 1-2 years and get the latest and greatest - those items can mostly be bought with disposable income (even if bought on credit). That simply isn't the case with anything that costs $60k minimum - most have to put down deposits and finance and capital depreciation means that selling and buying new every 1-2 years is prohibitive except for the most well off. I like how upgradable the software is on a Tesla and I like how Elon likes to run his company like a startup. I hope if they stick along these lines then they'll make more and more 'new' features upgradable (Yes, I know retrofits have been a sore spot with things like autopilot hardware). I just hope it'll change for the better.
Interesting. I sort of have the opposite view. IMO the only reason the D variants of the S were released in late 14 is because the X wasn't ready and they had to announce something to fill the gap. Ditto the ludicrous fuse - which is mostly a convenient smoke screen in front of the fact that the X is still not yet, and appears to have been hugely cut back in terms of ambition relative to its prototypes. On the other hand adaptive cruise, automated safety features, self-parking and even self-steering were all pretty embarrassing omissions on the car - all the German rivals have had them for years. Even once v7.0 is out the Model S is still behind BMW and Mercedes on that front. Giving it a cool name like "Autopilot" doesn't change the fact that it's mostly made up features that are standard on a mid-range Ford.
My two cents on the OP's question - the bigger regret is probably around waiting and not enjoying all the cool stuff that Tesla has already implemented. Owning a Tesla is like owning an iPhone very early on - it's super cool, changes the paradigm, fun to explore, people are curious, and new ones are coming all the time. The iPhone has essentially made the cell phone disposable - some of us change yearly, some every other, but most change with some degree of frequency. I suspect the Tesla will be like that for a bit. Those of us who are fortunate enough to afford these cars and are tech nerds will periodically upgrade. What's the harm in that? Life is short.
Depends on the new features and how soon they come out. If they are announced the day after my delivery, I would regret. If the features are really cool like a flying model s, I would regret. But something like wiper automatically stops if it's not raining... not so much.
^This is the winning response. Also considering the crash safety of Model S, you may not be alive to not regret anything. :O The strategy is simple regarding buying. If one reasonably has the means, one should buy a Tesla ASAP; nothing more to consider except Design studio decisions.
I voted no because cars changing yearly is standard practice in this industry. The frustration with Tesla can be that they change within months, with no method of predictability. With the rest of the auto industry, the changes happen every model year. One year they don't offer rear view camera the next they do. You know that if you buy a new car in July, the next model year vehicle will be released fairly soon with their incremental changes (typically a few more options and performance upgrades). With Tesla you have no idea when they'll do these incremental hardware improvements (such as 4G). The obvious, and significant, advantage to Tesla, tho, is the OTA updates. Fair trade off in my opinion. But this thread is about big upgrades. I consider the 'D' a big upgrade. I confirmed my order for a S85 days before the D announcement. I was, indeed, pissed. I had held off for so long because I wanted AWD, then I finally convinced myself to get it anyways. Now, Tesla allowed me to change to a P85D with no problem, so I wasn't angry long, but had I convinced myself get a RWD car a month earlier yes I would've regretted it.
I'm the opposite, I just bought an inventory p85+, the fact that they released a better model is what made it possible for me to get such an amazing car in the first place. If Tesla had stopped innovating I wouldn't have got such a good deal, and would have had to keep waiting to be able to afford one. Innovate away! with luck, in 5 years I'll upgrade to a really great 2-3 year old model!
If you can afford the constantly bleeding edge of technology, by all means go ahead and enjoy it. Most others who cannot, will happily soak up your toss aways on the used market. As far as I'm concerned (and most others who have never even seen a Tesla up close or driven one) will agree that every car Tesla has ever made is still more advanced than 95% of the new vehicles coming out today.
Ahh, but how would you feel if you finally pulled the trigger on an inventory car two weeks before a major update caused inventory cars to be even further discounted? That's how your situation would relate to the poll.
I'd be thrilled that Tesla is continuing to innovate and isn't standing still. It means that in a few years when I decide to upgrade that neat new whatever it is will be available to me. Remember, no matter what Tesla gives future owners, it doesn't make your car any less than it was when you agreed to purchase it. If you didn't want what they were selling at the time, for the price they asked at the time, you shouldn't have bought.
