NANTUCKET, MA - JUNE 23: A view of a Tesla Model X at the Screenwriters Tribute during the 2017 Nantucket Film Festival - Day 3 on June 23, 2017 in Nantucket, Massachusetts. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Nantucket Film Festival)
When is a dead battery not really dead? Why, when Elon Musk is just telling you it is, of course.
Some Tesla drivers fleeing Hurricane Irma were given a surprise free upgrade, as the car manufacturer remotely “unlocked” the full power of the batteries in the Model S and Model X cars that had been purchased with the 60kWh option. Most Tesla purchasers had likely believed they were buying a car with a different, lower capacity battery than those sold with the 75kWh models. But no, it turns out those cars actually contained the exact same 75kWh batteries that others had purchased at higher prices, with Tesla simply limiting how much of that capacity the lower-paying drivers could use.
In other words, prior to the landfall of Irma, drivers of the 60kWh models were being told by their cars that their batteries were on the verge of death, when in reality they had plenty of life remaining, if only Tesla hadn’t artificially limited the purchasers’ access to 20% of the battery’s capacity. Cost of the “upgrade” – which apparently amounts to checking a box on a profile page linked to each car – prior to Irma? $4500 to $9000, depending on the model.
Now, Tesla’s vaunted PR machine turned this story into a positive for the company, thanks to the reality that the mainstream news media is always anxious to turn any story into a positive for the manufacturer of the ultimate politically-correct automobile. Imagine, if you will, how the media would have portrayed the story of a gasoline-powered auto maker that artificially limited its car owner’s access to 20% of the gasoline they purchased. Somehow, it seems likely the story would have turned somewhat negative.
But think of the state of near-panic that must have existed at Tesla headquarters as staff began to wake up to the realization that Florida’s highways might soon be littered with the motionless carcasses of their pricey electric cars with “dead” batteries that weren’t really dead at all? Think of the internal conversations that must have been taking place as the realization that it would be hard for even the most Tesla-friendly media outlets to spin this story into anything but a massive negative began to set in.
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall in the Tesla board room as the company’s senior executives debated whether or not to let this $4500 - $9000 per unit cat out of the proverbial bag. In the end, they are to be commended for having decided to do the right thing, and flip those switches that allow their car owners – but only those impacted by Irma – to access the full capacity of the batteries for which they paid so dearly. But that decision was only made possible because they had decided to do the wrong thing by their customers in the first place.
The money-grubbing involved in the decision to artificially limit customer access to the battery’s full capacity to begin with is really kind of breathtaking. This is an automaker whose mostly-wealthy buyers are already heavily subsidized by federal and state taxpayers, to the tune of up to $10,000 per unit, depending on the state in which the car is sold. The very Tesla-friendly LA Times calculated that, as of 2015, Elon Musk’s various business ventures – Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity and others – had to that point received almost $5 billion in government subsidies.
">NANTUCKET, MA - JUNE 23: A view of a Tesla Model X at the Screenwriters Tribute during the 2017 Nantucket Film Festival - Day 3 on June 23, 2017 in Nantucket, Massachusetts. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Nantucket Film Festival)
When is a dead battery not really dead? Why, when Elon Musk is just telling you it is, of course.
Some Tesla drivers fleeing Hurricane Irma were given a surprise free upgrade, as the car manufacturer remotely “unlocked” the full power of the batteries in the Model S and Model X cars that had been purchased with the 60kWh option. Most Tesla purchasers had likely believed they were buying a car with a different, lower capacity battery than those sold with the 75kWh models. But no, it turns out those cars actually contained the exact same 75kWh batteries that others had purchased at higher prices, with Tesla simply limiting how much of that capacity the lower-paying drivers could use.
In other words, prior to the landfall of Irma, drivers of the 60kWh models were being told by their cars that their batteries were on the verge of death, when in reality they had plenty of life remaining, if only Tesla hadn’t artificially limited the purchasers’ access to 20% of the battery’s capacity. Cost of the “upgrade” – which apparently amounts to checking a box on a profile page linked to each car – prior to Irma? $4500 to $9000, depending on the model.
Now, Tesla’s vaunted PR machine turned this story into a positive for the company, thanks to the reality that the mainstream news media is always anxious to turn any story into a positive for the manufacturer of the ultimate politically-correct automobile. Imagine, if you will, how the media would have portrayed the story of a gasoline-powered auto maker that artificially limited its car owner’s access to 20% of the gasoline they purchased. Somehow, it seems likely the story would have turned somewhat negative.
But think of the state of near-panic that must have existed at Tesla headquarters as staff began to wake up to the realization that Florida’s highways might soon be littered with the motionless carcasses of their pricey electric cars with “dead” batteries that weren’t really dead at all? Think of the internal conversations that must have been taking place as the realization that it would be hard for even the most Tesla-friendly media outlets to spin this story into anything but a massive negative began to set in.
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall in the Tesla board room as the company’s senior executives debated whether or not to let this $4500 - $9000 per unit cat out of the proverbial bag. In the end, they are to be commended for having decided to do the right thing, and flip those switches that allow their car owners – but only those impacted by Irma – to access the full capacity of the batteries for which they paid so dearly. But that decision was only made possible because they had decided to do the wrong thing by their customers in the first place.
The money-grubbing involved in the decision to artificially limit customer access to the battery’s full capacity to begin with is really kind of breathtaking. This is an automaker whose mostly-wealthy buyers are already heavily subsidized by federal and state taxpayers, to the tune of up to $10,000 per unit, depending on the state in which the car is sold. The very Tesla-friendly LA Times calculated that, as of 2015, Elon Musk’s various business ventures – Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity and others – had to that point received almost $5 billion in government subsidies.
Read Again https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2017/09/14/tesla-turns-irma-lemons-into-lemonade-for-now/Bagikan Berita Ini
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