Going to bed one day and waking up the next to find your car is faster may seem unlikely, but that is exactly what happened for Tesla Model S owners.
Tesla Motors CEO and chairman Elon Musk tweeted about an update being applied to the electric car: “Tesla P85D 0 to 60mph acceleration will improve by ~0.1 sec soon via over-the-air software update to inverter algorithm.”
“P85 acceleration will also improve, but not quite as much,” the billionaire PayPal founder added in another tweet.
That means the dual motor, all-wheel drive Tesla Model S P85D can now hit 0 to 60mph in 3.1 seconds, down from 3.2 seconds. To put that into perspective, a £215,000 McLaren 650S two-seater supercar is only a few tenths faster than a seven-seater electric saloon.
Tesla Motors is able to issue a software update at any time to improve software stability, electric motor efficiency, increase speed; virtually anything to do with how the car operates. In essence, then, the car you buy now will be different if and when you come to sell it.
Admittedly the Tesla Model S tops out at 155mph and will no doubt get left behind by a McLaren once 60mph has been and gone, plus there’s the fact a 0 to 60mph time is different to 0 to 62mph, but even so that’s impressive.
Musk said the P85D’s “insane mode“, which allows the Model S P85D to accelerate at its fastest, was originally designed to improve traction in snowy conditions. But an increase in speed was a side effect of updating the car’s inverter algorithm.
The Tesla Model S P85D starts from £79,080, while the entry-level 60kWh with rear-wheel drive starts from £50,500.
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