Tesla has used the Model S as its basis and sounding board for expansion for a few years now. This car starts out at a base model with a 70 kWh batter pack in rear-wheel drive and moves up to the P90D with AWD and a 90 kWh battery pack. The software included on this car has been made to be upgradeable which means the automaker has to predict what could be the next offering and be able to send the code to the cars owned throughout the world to give every owner the upgrades they have bought and paid for.

Whether this information was part of what was known by hacker, Jason Hughes when he uncovered the hidden code in the Model S that referred to the possibility of a P100D or not is unknown? What is known is that Hughes thinks he has found something specific and special in the coding of the car when he hacked into the software of the Model S. What he could have found was nothing more than a bit of software in the event of a possible expansion to the P100D model but not necessarily something that is actually going to happen.

Thus far the news from Tesla has been nothing but quiet. There has been no announcement of a new P100D being offered but neither has there been a denial of this information either. What should we believe? What we should believe is Tesla is continually moving forward and working to make its products better. They have already dropped in software that allows the Model S to be a semi-autonomous driving car and offered some new products in the Model X and the soon to be on the market Model 3 that allow us to enjoy EV driving in a way that we never have before.

As for the information regarding an actual P100D being built; I won’t believe it until Tesla has developed it and it comes to market. this is the most logical next step for the Model S but it doesn’t seem to be the priority at the moment. The priority is bringing the Model 3 to market which is made to combat the new Chevrolet Volt with a similar range and a lower price point. The Model 3 will be the first volume seller for Tesla to enjoy the exceptional performance of the car.

While I’m confident what Hughes found is the software to operate a P100D which will someday be offered, this only shows us that Tesla is prepared to keep developing the Model S and has the software already made to support hardware upgrades. This is great news, especially for those of us who have enjoyed the Model S for many years now.

I think I will wait for Tesla to tell me they are ready to offer the P100D or that it’s in development. If I were Elon Musk I might consider having a conversation with Jason Hughes to learn how he hacked the car and find a way to keep such hacks from happening again.