Tesla is well known for their continuous improvement, implementing changes in vehicle design on the fly instead of waiting for model year changes like legacy automakers.
Sometimes those changes appear in the source code of the vehicle’s software months before they come to market.
With the latest deployment of the 2021.32 branch of software updates, there are two lines of new code that hint Tesla might soon be introducing new or updated versions of the Performance Model 3 and Model Y.
According to a screenshot of the code provided by a source to Trevor from Tesla Owners Online, there is now a ‘v2’ of the Performance 3/Y.
The source believes this change could mean Tesla will be making some kind of change to the motors. This could come in the form of carbon over-wrapped rotors, the same way Tesla has recently updated the Plaid drivetrain.
This would result in more sustained acceleration at higher speeds, instead of the drop off above 60mph the current motors experience.
There is also the possibility of the tri-motor drivetrain be introduced, but as Trevor points out this is unlikely doe to the costs involved.
UPDATE: Renowned Tesla hacker @greentheonly has confirmed to Drive Tesla that “some sort of an update is coming”, but the timeline is unclear.
some sort of an update is coming, but the extent of it is unclear.— green (@greentheonly) September 18, 2021
Dates are also unclear (consider that it took 2 years from first appearances of what is now plaid model S in the code to actual release)
Sometimes features and changes that have appeared in the code never make it to reality. That may be the case here, but as Trevor says, time will tell.