Tesla Revises MIC Model Y Configurator, Changes Name and Increases Range

Just hours ago Tesla made a change in Made-in-China model Y's specs, increasing the range from 525 km to 545 km, which is an increase of 12.5 miles of range in the Model Y. But, Tesla also substantially decreased the acceleration from 5.6 s to 6.9 seconds from 0 to 60.

The report came from the Ray4Tesla Twitter account.

Ray writes “BREAKING: MIC Model Y RWD SR configurator has been revised as follows: CLTC range: 545 km vs previous NEDC range 525 km Top Speed: 217 km/h (same) 0-100 km/h: 6.9s vs 5.6s Price: unchanged Instead of being listed as Model Y RWD SR, it’s now called Model Y RWD.”

Increase the range of the RWD SR MIC Model Y by 12.5 miles and keeping the same price is good news. But why has the acceleration decreased so much?

One user, named Tavi, commented under Ray’s tweet and says “If I’m thinking right about this, the top speed being unchanged means there’s no decrease in power output in the hardware (same drivetrain, same battery power). So the slower acceleration might be a SW limit, aimed at driving demand towards the LR.”

Ray4Tesla agreed with this view, writing “Possibly yes. Or owners may have to pay for 0-100 upgrade later.”

That is a noticeable loss in acceleration 6.9 is hardly slow, but it puts it more into the league of other manufacturers’ efforts. It's also the slowest Tesla ever made by some way. I have to think Elon won’t let this stand for too long!

There is another opinion that the slower acceleration was due to physical changes in the motor to make it more efficient at the expense of acceleration capability.

Armen Hareyan is the founder and the Editor in Chief of Torque News. He founded TorqueNews.com in 2010, which since then has been publishing expert news and analysis about the automotive industry. He can be reached at Torque News Twitter, Facebok, Linkedin and Youtube.