Tesla has a 400 mile battery for the Model S but it costs too much currently to market

During this evening’s 60 Minutes interview, anchor Scott Pelley asked Musk why his wife’s Tesla couldn’t get more than a 230 mile range. Musk replied that they could produce a battery that went 400 miles but it would cost too much to ship.

If you are saying to yourself, “I imagine a few people would be willing to pay for that”, you aren’t alone.

I’d heard this independently a few months back but I also heard that the ~110KWh battery would be an option for the Model X in 2015 or 2016. I’d also head that this new generation of batteries would be able to charge at a much faster rate with peak charging nearly double of the current Supercharger rates.

Tesla’s CTO JB Straubel said as much in an MIT Technology Review interview last year noting:

“It’s not going to happen in a year from now. It’s going to be hard. But I think we can get down to five to 10 minutes,” Straubel said in an interview with MIT Technology Review. He noted that the current superchargers, which deliver 120 kilowatts of electricity, “seemed pretty crazy even 10 years ago.” Conventional public charging stations deliver well under 10 kilowatts.