Tesla continues to take advantage of the fact that they don’t wait for a new year to put in any improvements into their cars, no matter how big or small. This time we are seeing another small increase to the range of the Model S Long Range.
The Model S Long Range has already had its range bumped up to 402 miles not too long ago, but it seems that Tesla wanted to squeeze out even more range from the electric car. This new figure also puts it right above the stated 406 miles of range the upcoming Lucid Air, so clearly Tesla is paying attention to some of its growing competition.
The increase to range has not been made official by either the Tesla or EPA website, but the news comes from a new Monroney Sticker obtained by Electrek which shows the new range of the Model S is 409 miles.
We are currently unaware if the increase in range is due to improvements within the software, hardware, or a mixture of the two. However, looking at one other number on the sticker leads some to believe that it has been a hardware improvement. Looking at the efficiency given by the sticker, we see that the new Model S has an efficiency of 116 MPGe versus the current one which has 117 MPGe. As such, since the efficiency has gone down, but the range has gone up, it looks to be using a more energy-dense battery. If the software were responsible for increasing range then it would have to have made better use of the original battery capacity and thus the efficiency would rise alongside the range. Of course, this is all speculation at this point.
We have seen the Model 3 range also recently go up due to progress made by Panasonic, but the Model 3 and Model S do not use the same cells so that would not explain the increase in range here.
How do you guys think Tesla improved the range? Let us know down in the comments below.
1 comment
Wow! That’s an upgrade I wasn’t expecting to hear from Tesla Model S. A surprise feature, indeed, but a welcome one overall.