The Teslas will suffer longer battery charges (much more than 20% longer) and significantly reduced battery life if on this new firmware. It would take improvements in hardware (or drastically reduced durability) to make it available for everything.

I just wish I could pick these modes for my phone, especially if it's a non-repairable battery. My Lenovo laptop actually has something like this - it puts the laptop to sleep at 20% and only charges to 80%, unless I choose otherwise.

>>I think to me, the difference is that in ICE vehicles, you're often tuning them up (requires additional research, testing, warranties) rather than tuning them down. I also assume there's some additional hardware to support the increased stress from higher performance.

In the case of the Golf/GTI, there wasn't. The hardware is virtually the same in both, the only difference was ECU tuning. This is the same as the Tesla, it's not tuned up or tuned down... it's identical, just rolls off the line with a different body, accessories, and ECU.

>>In the case of the tesla, they're taking something good and just tuning it down.

That's exactly what VW and car makers have been doing for decades. And Intel, AMD, Western Digital....

>>I wonder how people would react if they did this with the next iphone - i.e. it only charges to 80% unless you pay for an upgrade.

Probably about as poorly as this is being received, even though it's been going on forever.