Tesla has started pushing a new software update boosting the displayed range of the most recent Model S and Model X vehicles after announcing the new “Long Range Plus” version.
Last month, Tesla updated its Model S and Model X offerings with ever-higher range numbers. The cars were listed with 390- and 351-mile ranges, up from the previous 373 and 328 miles.
CEO Elon Musk had previously announced that they have found optimizations to increase the range in the latest version of the Model S/X powertrain.
They updated the EPA estimate for new cars being sold, but they had to push a new software update to actually display those efficiency improvements in the car.
Sources told Electrek that the update was actually holding up some deliveries.
It’s still isn’t clear which specific Model S and Model X vehicles are eligible to the new update, but Tesla started pushing it to vehicles built earlier this year today:
#Tesla #modelx got the 2020.4.11 update last night. Looks like this is the range upgrade! pic.twitter.com/WgPgpG7kdo
— greg (@noctechnolog) March 3, 2020
The new update is called 2020.4.11 and the release notes don’t mention anything new, but this Model X is now showing a range of 354 miles on a full charge, which is even higher than the updated EPA estimate.
Musk said that the new range is the result of “many small hardware improvements”:
Many small hardware improvements throughout the car that have been introduced gradually over past several months.
The CEO said that the software thought that the car was less efficient than it actually is with those hardware improvements.
Electrek’s Take
In other words, this is a real efficiency and range improvement over older Model S and Model X vehicles, but it doesn’t sound like the range or efficiency is actually different on these specific cars.
It’s simply so the car’s system understands its true efficiency.
That’s still good news since an accurate range estimate is a very important factor in reducing range anxiety.
Also, it confirms Tesla’s impressive efficiency lead, which is improving by about 3% every year.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.
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