The First Tesla With Nearly A 400-Mile Range Is The Old Roadster
Tesla's earliest adopters were promised an update to the Roadster before the end of the year and Elon Musk is delivering with less than a week to spare.
Musk just tweeted this out:
Roadster upgrade will enable non-stop travel from LA to SF — almost 400 mile range. Details tmrw. Merry Christmas!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 25, 2014
The smart money is on a battery and controller upgrade. Considering Tesla's packs are some of the most energy dense in the industry, the 56 kWh pack currently in the Roadster – which uses the same Panasonic 18650 cells as the Model S to deliver around 265 miles of range – could benefit from a software update. But Musk likes to deliver more, so offering a full battery replacement with upgraded cells and a software retrofit is more likely.
Musk followed up with this:
That's not entirely surprising. Tesla has been quick to iterate on the Model S, from software updates to upgrading the seats and even the sun visors. Musk and Co. like to treat their cars like software, constantly tweaking and tuning to get things just right.
That's the onus behind the Roadster upgrade, and the 2,500 owners that hopped on board early are getting a nice present for holidays. When it actually comes is another story.