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Tesla announces an upgraded 19-hour, $3K Model S battery pack

A Tesla Model S P85D.

Image Credit: Automobile Italia/Flickr

Electric car company Tesla Motors today announced a new upgraded battery pack for the Model S sedan.

Customers will be able to buy a 90-kilowatt-hour 19-hour battery pack for $3,000, Tesla Motors cofounder, chief executive, and product architect (and PayPal cofounder) Elon Musk said during a company conference call today.

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The Model S P85D is also getting faster. Thanks to a new “ludicrous mode,” Musk said, the car will be able to go from 0 to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds. Tesla’s forthcoming Model X sport-utility vehicle will also get the new “ludicrous mode,” although the acceleration time hasn’t been determined yet.

The “ludicrous mode” is basically an extension of the “insane mode” the Model S has been able to do when it goes from 0 to 30 mph, Musk told reporters on the call. Musk described “ludicrous mode” as “your own private roller coaster.”

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As for updates to the outside of the Model S, those might not be on the way anytime soon.

“Our focus right now is very much on the X and just getting that done,” Musk said when a reporter asked about product redesign for the Model S.

Tesla today also announced that the Model S with a 70-kilowatt-hour battery will now cost $70,000.

You can read a full live-blog of the conference call from MarketWatch here.

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