One of Tesla’s ways of keeping their customers engaged is providing constant OTA (over the air) updates to its existing vehicles. These updates help them to provide the customers with something new without having them bring the cars into the garage. The secret behind this is providing components that aren’t working at full potential in the beginning. A new Tesla vehicle might perform up to around 70-80% of the potential of its hardware. The remaining potential can be unlocked by buying these upgrades. This helps Tesla to earn some quick cash.
The Tesla Acceleration Boost – Is It Worth It?
At the end of Q3 this year, Tesla introduced the Acceleration Boost for the Model Y. This was clearly a sales tactic, as they wanted to improve the quarterly numbers. A few months before, they had come up with a similar Acceleration Boost for the Model 3 as well. Up until now, we hadn’t really got any customer reviews from people who purchased this update. But we now have a video where a Tesla owner who hasn’t yet bought the update, got to experience what this boost feels like.
What Is The Acceleration Boost?
Acceleration Boost basically does exactly what it suggests – it boosts the acceleration of the vehicle. According to Tesla, installing an Acceleration Boost update will improve your 0-60 mph (96.5 kph) timing by half a second. This update can be availed only by Tesla’s Long Range Plus customers for both, the Model Y and Model 3.
This update costs $2,000 for either of the vehicles and can be accessed through the company’s official website, or the Tesla app.
Result Of This Boost
This Acceleration Boost is aimed at those customers who were torn between buying a Performance variant and Long Range Plus variant and ended up buying the latter.
The Model 3 Performance can go from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.1 seconds. The Long Range Plus variant, on the other hand, has a timing of 4.2 seconds, which is quite a bit of difference. But by installing this update, you can decrease this timing to roughly 3.8 seconds. Of course, this is not as good as the Performance variant, but it gives the customer some middle ground.
Similarly, the Model Y Performance has a 0-60 mph acceleration timing of 3.5 seconds, while the Long Range Plus has a timing of 4.8 seconds. This gap can be bridged by the Acceleration Boost, as it brings the timing down to 4.3 seconds. But is half a second of improved acceleration timing worth it?
Is The Acceleration Boost Worth It?
The easiest way to answer this question is by letting a customer who hasn’t bought the boost drive a car that does have it. And this is exactly what YouTuber Zack did on his YouTube channel Project Future. He invited fellow YouTuber Charles Cornell to do a collaboration on this topic.
Charles Cornell also owns a Model 3 Long Range Plus, which is the same as what Zack has. The difference is that Zack has bought the Acceleration Boost and Charles hasn’t. And so, the two went on a drive so that Charles could test out this boost before he could consider buying it himself. And his reaction more or less gives you the answer to the earlier question.
While a new user of the boost will obviously feel the enhancement in performance, Zack wanted to check if this feeling ever goes away. And obviously, that kind of reaction would suggest that it does not.
Both Zack and Charles did a bit of analysis and found out that it is the 0 to 25/30 mph (40/50 kph) phase where the acceleration boost actually works. Post that, Tesla’s acceleration does kick in, but the Long Range variant has a little difficulty getting off the line initially. Not with the Acceleration Boost though. If you consider the fact that you may not get to touch the 60 mph mark in the city, this boost will definitely perk you up.
But the question is, is it worth spending the extra money? Do you give $2,000 for having the acceleration timing reduced by half a second? Zack feels that it isn’t absolutely necessary.
Our Opinion (And Zack’s As Well)
If you are an out-and-out Long Range customer, you will not need this Acceleration Boost probably. But if you are a customer who was torn between the two, the answer may change. The Acceleration Boost helps customers find some middle ground. You already have a car that goes 23 miles (Model Y) to 38 miles (Model 3) more than the Performance. And if you put the Acceleration Boost in, you get less than a second within the Performance variant’s timing. That is pretty much what you would want from your Long Range model.
