Tesla Offers US Buyers Of Model 3 Option To Get Faster Deliveries With LFP Battery Packs

Tesla Inc TSLA is reaching out to Model 3 buyers in the United States with an offer to significantly quicken the delivery of their vehicles, a customer's post revealed on Thursday.

What Happened: Tesla has emailed buyers offering them an opportunity to get their Model 3 Standard Range Plus deliveries in September instead of a previously estimated delivery near the end of the year. 

As per the email, Tesla has told customers that it is introducing the Model 3 Standard Range Plus battery pack due to limited supply and strong customer demand. 

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Tesla said the Model 3 Standard Range Plus battery pack, which has an estimated range of 253 miles, has already been released in Europe and Asia.
It wasn't immediately clear which battery pack Tesla was referring to but a tweet from Elon Musk indicates the company is offering to equip the cars with lithium iron phosphate battery packs, as it does already in China.

Musk said that the product experience is roughly equivalent between nickel and iron battery packs.

“I’d personally slightly opt for an iron pack, as it wants to be charged to 100%, whereas nickel prefers ~90%,” the Tesla CEO added.

Why It Matters: Tesla started making the Model 3 Standard Range Plus with iron phosphate battery cells at the Shanghai gigafactory late last year. The automaker sells those vehicles in China and has started shipping them to markets in Europe and the Asia Pacific.

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Lithium iron phosphate batteries are reportedly about 20% cheaper to make as they use iron instead of more expensive nickel and cobalt but offer a shorter range on a single charge relatively.

Price Action: Tesla shares closed 1.41% lower at $701.16 on Thursday.

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Photo: Courtesy of Tesla