Elon Musk: “400-Mile Or Greater Range With The Tesla Model S”

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Elon Musk stated in the earnings call last night that he was confident that the Tesla Model S would soon have a 400-mile or greater range rating from the EPA — that this has already achieved and just needs confirmation from the EPA.

During the 2019 Q4 Tesla earnings call back in January, Elon Musk said that the Model S and Model X had more range than Tesla was stating on its website. “We just haven’t gotten around to updating the EPA’s certified number,” Elon Musk said. The Model S Long Range was and still is rated at 373 miles, according to the EPA ratings. In an answer to a question about why Tesla doesn’t switch to the 2170 cells used in the Model 3, Elon replied, “We’re rapidly approaching a 400-mile range for the Model S.”

In last night’s earnings call for Q1 of 2020, Elon shared the good news — that Tesla recently improved the range of the vehicle and the real Model S range rating today should be 400+ miles. The Model X has also been improved, to 351 miles. To clarify, Elon also noted that the range improvement isn’t coming with any increase in energy storage capacity in the battery — energy capacity is remaining the same.

The EPA previously didn’t actually rate the Model S accurately due to a slight error. “When we did the last EPA test, unfortunately, EPA left the car door open and the keys in the car.” This mattered because this put the car into “waiting for driver mode” and it then lost 2% of its range sitting there. “As soon as the EPA reopens for testing, we will redo the test, and we’re extremely confident that we’ll achieve a 400-mile or greater range with the Model S.” The Model S will be the first electric vehicle to have ever achieved such a high range rating. It already has the highest rated range of any electric vehicle.

One thing the EPA’s error does is it reminds everyone to not leave their keys in their car. Sofiaan Fraval also reminded his Twitter following to always use “PIN to drive,” so that even if you do forget your key in the car, no one can drive away with your car unless they know the PIN.

This latest news from the Tesla earnings call just shows how far battery technology has come and also the direction Tesla is taking the market. Tesla went from developing electric cars to developing its own batteries, which opened the door for it to step into the energy industry, and it continues to excel in this field — for the benefit of both cars and the clean energy industry.


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Johnna Crider

Johnna owns less than one share of $TSLA currently and supports Tesla's mission. She also gardens, collects interesting minerals and can be found on TikTok

Johnna Crider has 1996 posts and counting. See all posts by Johnna Crider