Tesla Model S P90D Owners Get All The Power Thanks To One Man's Suit

People who shelled out the extra money for the P90D option on their Model S EVs wanted all the electric torque and performance they could get and they wanted it as often and as easily accessible as possible. The problem for many of these owners is that Tesla decide to minimize the wear on the drivetrain it would lower the power output after launch model was used a certain number of times.

Owners did not like that and the pushback was fast and vocal from owners. Tesla came back in and decided to give the P90D owners back most of that power, but you had to go through Launch Mode to access it. This resulted in a suit by one Arizona P90D owner who wanted power within easier reach and he field a complaint with the Arizona Attorney General Civil Litigation Consumer Protection and Advocacy department and detailed his progress on the Tesla Motors Club forum.

During this process is where P90D owners became aware that Tesla didn't give them back all the power their cars had originally had or were capable of. Rather than the 510 kW of power, the cars had only 500 kW of power after Ludicrous was restored. The forum user who started the complaint, "azdryheat" took Tesla to small claims court.

Tesla employees actually showed up for the case, and the Arizona AG decided to put the original case on hold in hopes it was resolved in court. Azdryheat wrote on the forums he told Tesla, "...if they restored everyone's car, I would drop all the complaints and they didn't need to pay me anything," and "... if they were not willing to do that, I would not want to sign a NDA for any settlement since all owners needed to be corrected for this error."

Tesla has now released an update that brings back all 510 kW of power without the user needing to use launch control to do it. Tesla's Jon McNeill, president of sales and service, wrote in a different forum thread, "I'd like to provide a quick update on this topic. Some of you with a P90D and Ludicrous acceleration mentioned that you did not want to use Launch Mode to simultaneously activate maximum battery performance. We've listened and are happy to tell you that for those that wish to do so, you can again enable maximum battery performance independently from Launch Mode, ensuring that you have maximum flexibility in how you use your car."

Interestingly, while reducing output of the P90D, Tesla has been making the P100D faster with software updates.

SOURCE: InsideEVs