Originally slated for a July delivery date, Tesla Motors has moved customer deliveries of its new Model S sedan ahead to June.
The battery-electric four-door is equipped with an 85kWh battery pack and is tested under the EPA’s new five-cycle procedure. A blog post on the Tesla website revealed that CEO Elon Musk and engineering boss J.B. Straubel said the range of the Model S is equipped with the largest of three available battery packs, which would depend on a variety of factors, including speed, temperature and driving condition.
The new Model S was tested using the EPA’s original two-cycle procedure; it had a range of 320 miles, Musk and Strauble wrote. The range dropped by 55 miles using the newer five-cycle procedure. Tesla plans to offer an unspecified prize “for the first customer that actually drives over 400 miles on a single charge” in a Model S.
Tesla will offer two versions of the Model S — the uplevel Model S Signature with 85kWh battery and the Model S Performance Edition, also equipped with the 85kWh battery. The midlevel Model S with 60kWh battery is scheduled to arrive in the fall, followed late in the year by the base model with 40kWh battery.
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