2016 Tesla Model S 90D: a Range of 490 km, According to the EPA

Slowly but surely, progress marches on: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just published the range for the 2016 Tesla Model S 90D, which just received some upgrades. With highway range of 487.93 kilometres (303.2 miles), the sedan from California just became the first production electric vehicle that can go over 300 miles on a single charge.

This impressive number has been achieved thanks to a few tweaks. First of all, the 90D—as its name implies—packs a 90-kW battery pack, the biggest ever fitted to a Model S. Tesla also claims that the front fascia’s aerodynamic tweaks help the car reach 300 miles of maximum range.

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Note that this represents the maximum distance that can be traveled with the 90D; the EPA posts an average range of 473 kilometres, which includes 45% of city driving and 55% highway driving.

With its more powerful motors, the high-performance P90D variant didn’t manage to reach the 300-mile range threshold; it can still get up to 434 km out of its battery, though.

• More information about the 2016 Tesla Model S
• We drove the high-performance Tesla Model S P90D