Is the Tesla P100DL Upgrade (details) worth the $20K for P90DL Owners?

Before I give you the answer, I want you to go back to the 90s and the era of Pentium computers. Remember when you would order the best of the best Pentium based PC and you got it and you said to yourself: Wow! I got the best computer ever! Well, that was probably true for a few weeks and soon your Pentium was obsolete and a new model was on the market.

Perhaps not directly but you could apply the same analogy to the Tesla vehicles especially if you desire to have the fully loaded Model S or X and when you actually take delivery you can proudly drive it knowing that you have the best of the best until of course Mr. Musk sends a Tweet about something new and now your best vehicle is no longer the best.

You never know what the next Musk tweet will bring

As some of you probably guessed that has happened to me when I received my updated facia P90DL in late May of 2016. Since that time the vehicle has gotten 3 revisions: P100DL, AP2, and Full Glass Roof. When the P100DL was announced, an upgrade option for $20,000 was available for all P90DL owners and of course I have signed up. The rumor was that it would be January of 2017 before it could happen. (the rumor was not true, it is still not here)

Michael's

Of course you want to test something before you buy and last month P100DL demo model arrived in Atlanta and I got a chance to experience it.

If you are using your P90DL to its max, meaning driving in Ludicrous Mode, using Max Battery Mode and having a few launch modes, you will want to do the same on P100DL. To my surprise that difference in power was about 5 to 10%. As far as range, sure you get 10 more kWh but knowing the usable amount, that is more like 7.

So now for the question of the day: Is it worth the $20K to upgrade to P100DL and get the 2.38 second car? My answer is yes, but not at $20K.

I place the value of the upgrade at $10K. And here is why: It does not come with AP2.0 hardware. Once Auto Pilot 2.0 was announced the value of that upgrade became less significant as the benefits of getting AP2.0 on P100DL is far greater compared to just the acceleration.

I asked Tesla if they would consider a $10K option but received no official response.

What do you think? Is the upgrade worth the $20K?

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