Tesla's longest-running electric car is not the Model S, a title that has been temporarily won by the Lucid Air, which can travel 837 kilometers on a single charge. However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a Twitter response to a Whole Mars Catalog post by one of its supporters that a year ago there was actually an opportunity to create a Model S with a range of 965 kilometers, although the data is more beautiful, but it has become an unqualified product.
This is not Musk's aggressive words about the strength of competitors, in fact, the debate on the range of electric vehicles has not yet settled. Although the demarcation is not very obvious, it can be roughly divided into two categories in the development of electric vehicle endurance, one is to increase the battery capacity in pursuit of longer mileage, and the other is to limit the battery capacity and provide limited cruising range.
The advantages of the former are obvious, reducing the charging time and can effectively reduce the mileage anxiety, but because the battery increases the weight, affecting the driving experience, followed by a significant increase in cost, the increase in charging time is an obvious disadvantage; the latter has the advantage of low cost and short charging time, but the shorter endurance will make the electric vehicle more dependent on the complete charging network, and the user is more likely to worry about the problem of insufficient power.
Whole Mars Catalog writes that Lucid is the first brand to launch a mass-produced electric car with a range of more than 800 kilometers, but Tesla should be the first pure electric car factory to have a large-scale production of electric vehicles with the same range. Musk responded that Tesla had the opportunity to launch a Model S with a range of 965 kilometers about 1 year ago, but it did not make the product more attractive. The increase in cruising range means that it is necessary to install a larger, heavier and more expensive battery pack, but in the daily use situation of most people, the additional endurance is actually "unnecessary", and even now the cruising range of more than 600 kilometers has exceeded the usual need, so why add extra weight and cost, not only make the control and efficiency worse, but also have to pay additional costs only to buy unused electricity?
This is not the first time Musk has changed his mind and slowed down the development of electric vehicles, not because of technical limitations, but because the market does not need it. Rather than continuing to drive higher range, it may be more critical to the future of the brand to try to find a balance between mileage and cost weight.