New Tesla Model S 75D With Middle-Sized Battery Accidentally Announced

Tesla announcements are usually restricted to large flashy events or strings of tweets from Elon Musk, but the California Air Resource Board (CARB) broke Tesla news today in a simple website update.

Electrek discovered that the list of eligible single-occupant carpool stickers (which is restricted to electric and hybrid vehicles) now has a Tesla Model S 75D listed.

Unless CARB has made a mistake, a 75 kWh battery for the Model S may soon be in the works. The Model X 75 kWh battery was announced last month, but the Model S battery, today, only comes in a 70 kWh model below the 90 kWh version. The Tesla website hasn’t been updated to reflect CARB’s breaking news.

Either CARB knows something we don’t, or whoever updates the CARB website just got on Musk’s bad side.

Assuming the news is true, this could mean a middle option between the 70 kWh battery and the 90 kWh battery. The 70 kWh battery currently offers a 255 mile range for the all wheel drive Model S, and the 90D battery offers a 302 mile range in all wheel drive. Another middle option would offer more range without bumping the price too much. The 85 kWh battery option that CARB has listed was discontinued earlier this year.

When Tesla announced the Model X 75 kWh battery, it expected shipping dates to be in mid 2016. Tesla is amping up its production and buying more warehouse space to accommodate the increase in orders, but there’s no guarantee that Tesla will even be able to produce at the level they are selling.

Adding more options surely won’t help that, but it might get the investors going in tomorrow’s earnings call. But that’s if, of course, CARB is actually leaking news and not just putting out false information.