Tesla are the masters of the software upgrades and have continued to roll out free OTA updates to their vehicles over a number of years now. As vehicle production is forced to slow (or stop), one potential income stream Tesla can lean on is paid upgrades.
The Tesla mobile app is now displaying an Upgrades link on the front page. This is a big deal, placing paid upgrade options in front of existing owners, every time they launch the app, which is clearly a strategy to increase sales.
Tesla don’t publish attachment rates for vehicle upgrades, but there are a number of upgrades available, depending on which Tesla you own and when you purchased it.
Full Self Driving
Easily the most controversial of the upgrades, while also being the most expensive. Currently priced at A$8,500, FSD Unlock adds the ability to Summon your car, auto park and the big one, Navigate on Autopilot. This will enable your car to go freeway entrance, to freeway exit all on its own and even overtake slower traffic.
Rear Heated Seats
When Standard Range+ owners purchased their cars, the indication from the website, was that they didn’t have heating in their rear seats. We later learned that the rear seats are the same as the Long Range and Performance models and with a paid software unlock, SR+ owners could also offer a warm bum to passengers.
Tesla are offering the rear heated seat option for A$500.00.
Premium connectivity
By the time the Model 3 was available in Australia, unlimited premium connectivity was removed. This means Australian Model 3s at best have 1 year of premium connectivity (that’s the 4G SIM from Telstra that provides access to live traffic, Spotify and more.
While it’s not there yet, sometime between now and September, we expect to see Premium Connectivity offered as a renewal option for around US$10 per month.
