The folks at Teslarati ran a story on June 16 that claimed Tesla has equipped a few Model 3s with 100 kWh battery packs. If so, the cars would almost certainly have a range of more than 400 miles. The report was based on a tweet by Tesla enthusiast and white hat hacker Zeus M3.
hey @greentheonly look what we found here 🙂 pic.twitter.com/mQ9SIPoXDq
— Zeus M3 (@zeus7f1) June 15, 2020
Look carefully in the left column 2 lines above the Factory Mode language in red and you will see the words “Pack Energy — 100 kWh.”
Alerted by Zeus M3’s tweet, well-known Tesla authority Green, aka greentheonly, weighed in with a tweet of his own that said, “First publicly revealed 100kWh model3. I know more than this one exist outside of Tesla test labs.” Green prefaces his Twitter feed with this statement: “I report what I see. If it’s good, it’s good, if it’s bad, it’s bad. Does not depend on me. Make them release more awesome stuff. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
Teslarati took those two tweets and ran with them, speculating that the Model 3 with the 100 kWh battery pack could make an appearance at about the same time as the company decides to refresh both the Model S and Model X to bring them in line with the manufacturing advances Tesla has instituted with Model 3 and Model Y production. Elon Musk responded to the rumors with a rather definitive tweet of his own.
Or Y
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 16, 2020
End of story. Or is it? Manufacturers are constantly pulling items out of the company parts bin and doing a little mix and match to create cars that are not planned for production. You don’t think Bill Ford has a Ford GT somewhere in his garage that packs a few more ponies than the stock version?
A few years ago, Porsche needed a super fast chase vehicle to service its factory-backed entries in the Paris to Dakar rally. They wound up stuffing an engine from a 911 Turbo into the back of a Volkswagen Transporter, thereby creating the baddest, meanest VW minivan in history. That car probably still exists somewhere near Porsche’s famous Wiessach test track today.
Are there a few Model 3s with 100 kWh battery packs running around? Probably. But that doesn’t mean you should hold off buying a Model 3 until they go on sale. Somewhere, there are some Tesla engineers with huge grins plastered all over their faces. For the rest of us? We can still dream.
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