A software hacker may have spoiled Tesla Motors' [NSDQ:TSLA] plans for its next major product announcement, which may be a new, higher-capacity battery.
Hacker Jason Hughes, whose name is no doubt spoken in hushed terms at Tesla's headquarters, revealed in a recent tweet found by Electrek (via Green Car Reports) that buried deep in the current Model S's operating system are references to the term "P100D".
Moreover, he hacked a bit further and discovered that firmware updates over the last two months have even included a graphic depiction of the P100D badge.
While Tesla itself has remained silent on the subject, the company has traditionally badged its vehicles according to their battery capacity. A 100-kilowatt-hour battery would represent an 11 percent increase in capacity over the 90-kwh pack introduced in the 90D last year. Electrek speculates that this would easily give the rumored P100D a 300-mile range and that the battery would inevitably be offered in the Model X crossover as well.
Hughes has been hacking his way through the operating system from a salvaged Model S.
Tesla is just weeks away from unveiling its new entry-level offering, the Model 3, at an exclusive event in Los Angeles, and hopefully there will be confirmation of the 100-kwh battery, too.
