Elon Musk announces Battery Day will take place on 15 September, a week after revealing updates for the Model S
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced the forthcoming “Tesla Shareholder Meeting & Battery Day” will take place on 15 September 2020. His Tweet on 22 June warned the date was “tentative” for the time being; no further information has been revealed.
The announcement comes just a week after the firm revealed that all of its Model S Long Range Plus cars built from 15 June will come with a number of upgrades that help them achieve an official range of 650 kilometres – as measured using the American EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) test procedure.
There’s no news of this revised model coming to the Australia yet, but its official range here will be calculated using the global WLTP standard, and so may fall a bit short of the headline 650-kilometre mark.
Rather than being an over-the-air update for existing cars, the Model S Long Range Plus’ changes have taken place under the metal. Tesla says that lessons learned from the production of its Model 3 and Model Y have been applied to the Model S’ construction to save weight, including a standardised production process for the seats and the use of lightweight materials in its battery and electric motors.
New aerodynamic alloy wheels cut drag and, Tesla says, account for a 2% improvement in range; the car’s electric motors have had their internals revised and the existing mechanical oil pump changed for an electric one, with updates to the gearbox also added.
The Model S Long Range Plus also gets Tesla’s ‘HOLD’ system, which increases the amount of regenerative braking by blending in some physical braking, too. This system has been adjusted to work at a lower speed, sending more power to the battery, Tesla claims.
Alongside its Model S Long Range Plus announcement, Tesla revealed that its network of Superchargers now spans over 17,000 units worldwide.
Tesla Battery Day
The news of this revised Model S Long Range Plus comes as Tesla gears up to hold its Battery Day event, which was originally scheduled for April and then May, but was then postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s likely that the company’s CEO and co-founder Elon Musk will use the event – now set to take place on 15 September – to announce the company’s latest developments in battery technology. On Twitter, Musk teased that the announcement is “not just a presentation,” suggesting that “there’s a lot to see.”
Exactly what will be announced is not yet clear, but reports have suggested that new battery technology from the US company will aim to bring the cost of their production down, thereby reducing the cost of electric cars that use them.
We’ll have to wait until the Battery Day conference to see what Tesla’s official plans for its battery technology are.
James Howe