Tesla flips a switch to increase the range of some cars in Florida

Re:Tesla flips a switch to increase the range of some cars i... by martin_bech on Saturday September 09, 2017 @09:42PM (#15210059)

You are not aware that the exact same thing is done for petrol and diesel cars (i believe a bmw 318d is the exact same engine as a 323d, a part from software/firmware). Cpus, gpus etc. etc.

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Re:Tesla flips a switch to increase the range of some cars i... by jacquesm on Saturday September 09, 2017 @10:12PM (#15210176)

There's the base engine and then there is everything bolted on to it (Turbo(s) for instance).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_N47

There are two basic versions of that engine both have four cylinders, a 1.8L and a 2.0L, that's only a difference in sleeves and pistons but it is not just a software change.

There is no 2.3L version of that engine and I'm not aware of a 323d.

The next level up is a six cylinder version:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_M57

Which comes in three different displacement variants.

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Re:Tesla flips a switch to increase the range of some cars i... by giobox on Saturday September 09, 2017 @10:14PM (#15210182)

Exactly. Many years ago my father drove a Rover 75 in the UK which used an older version of BMW's 318d engine, but of course hobbled in software so as not to deliver as much power/torque as the same engine in a BMW.

For a couple hundred quid you could "chip" the engine to match or exceed the rated power of the BMW version. They even installed it in such a way that the chip could be removed before you took it in for a service so as to avoid warranty concerns etc.

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