Connect with us

News

Signs that Tesla may soon discontinue the Model X P90D

Published

on

It would appear that Tesla is anxious to sell down its stock of new Model X P90D cars according to the latest listing of inventory cars for sale by the Silicon Valley automaker. At the time of writing, nearly 85% of the vehicles listed on the company’s New Inventory page are for the Performance version of its 90 kWh Model X SUV which may suggest that production for the P90D may soon come to an end. With such a modest performance gap between the P100D and P90D, it makes sense to only offer one range topping configuration. But there may be more to the story.

Updated November 3, 2016: Tesla says goodbye to P90D Model S, X: P100D is the new king of the hill

Elon Musk has made it clear that people who opt for the P100D option in either the Model S or Model X are helping to fund development of the Model 3 — especially if the Ludicrous Mode upgrade is included. Tesla has a lot of balls in the air at the moment, especially with the proposed merger between it and SolarCity set to happen in less than a month. It needs to bring money in the door to calm nervous investors who fear the company his bitten off more than it can chew in terms of cash flow.

tesla-new-inventory-p90d-90kwh-battery

Tesla lists 46 Model X P90D vehicles for sale on New Inventory page [Oct. 26, 2016]

It is racing to expand its Supercharger network in preparation for having more Teslas on the road once the Model 3 goes into production. It needs to open more stores and service locations. And it needs to fund the SolarCity acquisition. The P100D variant likely has the highest profit margin for the company. With the pressure to bring cash in the door paramount at the moment, this is the perfect time to drop the less profitable P90D and maximize income.

Looking beyond the immediate moment, however, Tesla has always preferred to have two basic battery packs for its Model S and Model X. Right now it has four variants — 60 kWh, 75 kWh, 90 kWh and 100 kWh. The current 60 kWh battery is a software limited version of the 75 kWh battery pack. Eliminating the 90 kWh battery entirely would leave it free to offer a software limited version of the 100 kWh to customers who want something more than the 75 kWh unit but don’t want to spend the money for the 100 kWh choice.

Red-Ludicrous-P90D-Badge-Emblem

A pair of Model S and Model X P90D Ludicrous seen at the Gardnerville, NV Supercharger

The software limited 60 kWh battery costs $6,000 less than the original 60. That means Tesla could offer a software limited 90 kWh option for less money than the 90D costs today, which would give customers the range of options they want while allowing the company to save money by only building and stocking 2 basic batteries for its long range vehicles – a 75 kWh and 100 kWh battery pack. It wouldn’t come as a surprise if Tesla soon drops the P90D for both the Model S and Model X.

Tesla is charting new territory by offering features that can be unlocked later upon payment of a upgrade charge. All Teslas now come with the second generation hardware needed for its Enhanced Autopilot system. Buyers have a choice of activating that option at the time the car is built or upgrading later. The same is true of Full Self-Driving Capability. Because of Tesla’s ability to alter the configuration of its cars wirelessly at any time, a buyer today can elect to add features later if so desired. That capability should help keep the resale value of used Teslas high.

If you have your heart set on a Model X P90D or Model S P90D, both of which no longer have the Ludicrous mode upgrade available, better act fast before they’re all gone. You can save yourself a significant amount of money by not waiting until the higher priced P100D is the only option available.

Advertisement
-

"I write about technology and the coming zero emissions revolution."

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

Tesla Roadster unveiling is getting hyped up by Elon Musk

Published

on

tesla roadster
Credit: Petersen Auto Museum

The Tesla Roadster unveiling is getting hyped up by the company’s CEO Elon Musk, who has been a big reason the product has such high expectations due to delayed timelines and a constant need to make it even more insane than before.

Tesla announced on September 12 that it would officially unveil the Roadster in Waco, Texas, on October 1, ending years of patience for fans and reservation holders who have waited for the all-electric supercar to enter production since 2017.

Musk has said that this event will be well worth the wait on several occasions, and last year on the Joe Rogan Experience, he said that there should be a closing chapter to supercars- the end of cars that aren’t focused on safety.

He said:

“Whether it’s good or bad, it will be unforgettable. My friend Peter Thiel once reflected that the future was supposed to have flying cars, but we don’t have flying cars. I think if Peter wants a flying car, he should be able to buy one. I think it has a shot at being the most memorable product unveil ever. This is some crazy technology in this car. Let’s just put it this way: if you took all the James Bond cars and combined them, it’s crazier than that.”

Musk’s teases have continued, and now that the event is roughly two weeks away, it seems like Roadster is finally going to show up and blow some minds:

Advertisement
-

Tesla has definitely dragged out the development of the Roadster, but there is a good reason for it.

Tesla has been working on many other projects, most notably self-driving efforts to increase passenger safety, and those simply took priority over the Roadster, a low-volume, high-performance sports car that has a lightning-fast acceleration rate of 0-60 MPH in just 1.1 seconds, could potentially fly, and contributes very little to the company’s mission.

Advertisement
-

However, many people have the Roadster on pre-order through the referral program or with their own money, and it is time that Tesla delivers on that.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s Boring Company has big plans for Las Vegas by year’s end

Elon Musk’s Boring Company says Vegas Loop stations will double by year end once again.

Published

on

By

the boring company's vegas loop entrance

The Boring Company says the Vegas Loop’s station count will double by the end of the year, tying the target to a hiring push for drivers and operations managers in Las Vegas. “Vegas Loop is getting bigger – the station count will double by end of year!” the company wrote in a post on X, attaching listings for a Loop driver and a senior Loop operations manager.

The number checks out against what’s already public, with the Vegas Loop currently running 14 operational stations, while the Boring Company’s own project page lists 28 as the target for the end of 2026.

Much of that growth is tied to tunnels that are already built and waiting on an opening date. A roughly two-mile dual tunnel system under Paradise Road, connecting Westgate to a planned station at 4744 Paradise Road, is expected to open in stages over the coming weeks, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority chief executive Steve Hill told the Review-Journal last week. New stations at 4744 Paradise, Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, and the former Gordon Biersch site would come online with it, several of them built to speed up rides to Harry Reid International Airport ahead of Formula 1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Clark County entitled Vegas Loop for 123 stations after approving 19 more in August, as Teslarati reported at the time. Entitlement and construction move at different speeds on this project, so county approval alone does not guarantee a station opens on any particular schedule.

Clark County approved 18 additional stations back in 2023, part of a plan that pushed the system’s target to 69 stations across 65 miles, doubling the network on paper for the first time. The target kept climbing after that, to roughly 93 stations by the end of that year and 104 by last year, before August’s vote pushed it to 123. This week’s announcement is the first time that doubling language has been attached to stations actually running rather than stations merely approved on a county map.

Ridership gives some sense of what a denser network could carry. Boring Company executive Mike Baier said in July that the Vegas Loop already moves around 40,000 passengers on busy convention days, a total that tops most light rail systems in the country despite the system running on a fraction of its planned tunnel mileage. Company leadership has projected ridership could triple or quadruple once the airport connector tunnels fully open.

Advertisement
-

Boring Company did not say which stations beyond those already under construction would open by year end, or whether the hiring push points to a fleet expansion alongside the new stops.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla looks to expand into new Asian market, strengthening presence

Published

on

Credit: Tesla Asia | X

Tesla is looking to expand into a new Asian market, strengthening its presence in a region that has been bullish on electric vehicles as a whole.

Tesla officially filed to establish a subsidiary of its business in Vietnam, a report from Reuters suggests. Tesla named the entity “Tesla Motors Vietnam Limited Liability Company.”

The planned entrance into the Vietnamese market is a good sign and move for Tesla, as it has become one of the fastest-growing EV markets in Southeast Asia. It is already among the leaders in the region in both volume and electrification rate. In the first half of this year, Vietnam led Southeast Asia in battery-electric passenger car sales at about 116,000 units, up about 71 percent year over year.

Currently, Vietnamese EV drivers rely on VinFast’s V-Green network, which has about 150,000 ports, but these are primarily reserved for VinFast vehicles. Public third-party charging is fragmented and unreliable for those who do not own chargers that are dedicated to a certain manufacturer’s vehicles.

Tesla has had mixed results in Asia as a whole, and as China remains the core part of its story in Asia, the company is evidently working on expanding its footprint on the continent. Tesla’s domestic retail deliveries fell about 12 percent year over year through the first eight months of 2026.

Model Y remains a standout individual product, holding its position as one of, if not the, best-selling vehicles in the world. However, Model 3 has been weaker than it has been in past years.

Advertisement
-

Gigafactory Shanghai, the company’s Chinese production facility, still performs very well. Wholesale volumes in terms of exports have more than doubled and now exceed domestic retail sales; Giga Shanghai builds vehicles for Europe, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and other markets. South Korea has been an explicit bright spot, with registrations doubling year-to-date and Tesla frequently appearing as the top imported brand.

Tesla just did something in South Korea that no foreign carmaker has ever done

Tesla’s entrance into Vietnam signals a broader effort to take over the Asian market and grab more market share from rivals.

Continue Reading