Tesla remotely increases power output of all Model 3 vehicles through software update

Tesla started remotely increasing the power output of all Model 3 vehicles through a software update over a year after starting production.

When the automaker launched the base Model 3 for $35,000 with shorter range and a new interior, it also promised several upgrades to existing Model 3 vehicles through software updates.

The automaker promised an increase in range for all Model 3 vehicles with a Long Range battery pack and rear-wheel-drive motor as well as a peak power increase for all Model 3’s.

As we reported last week, Tesla already started pushing an update to increase the Model 3 range.

Now Tesla is starting to roll out the peak power increase update – through its firmware version 2019.8.2.

In the release notes, Tesla writes about the Peak Power Increase:

“Your vehicle’s peak power has been increased by approximately 5%, improving acceleration and Performance.”

Tesla previously said that this increase in peak power output should result in an increase top speed to 162 mph for Model 3 Performance, but all Model 3 vehicles should feel a little more powerful.

Electrek’s Jeff Benjamin received the update on his Model 3 Long Range RWD and noted that it does “feel a bit more peppy.”

During a call when announcing the base Model 3, CEO Elon Musk briefly addressed these over-the-air upgrades and said that Tesla now feels comfortable pushing the Model 3’s battery pack and motor to higher levels after gathering data from them being on the road for over a year.

Electrek’s Take

As we previously noted, Tesla’s claim of efficiency gain that only applies to Long Range RWD Model 3 vehicles is suspicious because the company was already able to advertise the vehicles with a higher range, but it previously chose not to for an unclear reason.

For the power increase, it’s a much less controversial update and actually shows some impressive work from the automaker.

The fact that Tesla is actually releasing this capacity across all Model 3 vehicles clearly shows that they now feel more comfortable drawing more power from the Model 3 powertrain after gathering more real-world data.