Tesla Strangely Warns That New Cars Will Run On Battery Packs Dating To 2017
In a rather strange move, it appears that Tesla is warning customers interested in the 2021 Model 3 that the cars may come with battery packs from as early as 2017.
Test and demo vehicles are sold as new, and a few of them have begun to pop up in the online store over the last week, as reported by Electrek. This might be due to the end of the year coming up, with Tesla aiming to boost its financials by minimizing its inventory.
Under the vehicle listing for these cars, a small sentence reading “Range figures may be up to 12% lower due to battery age” would be included, alongside a “Learn More” link. This had been spotted by several website patrons, including a few members of the r/teslamotors community.
When clicked through, the disclaimer, cited by Electrek, wrote that the vehicle “was built with a battery pack manufactured as early as 2017.”
“While this pack was brand-new when the vehicle was built, the cells have reduced capacity due to their age and you can expect up to 12% reduction in range from current production specifications.”
One Reddit user speculates that this is just a “blanket disclaimer” for all test and demo cars, instead of particularly singling out the 2021 models as having a 2017 battery. However, another reply points out that the models that have this warning are 2021 ones.
As for why the company made it sound like it intentionally decided to build a car in 2021 with a random battery pack dug up from around four years ago—that remains unknown.
