Tesla (TSLA) is now offering some of its Rear-Wheel Drive (RWD) Model Y owners a chance to unlock 50 miles of additional range.
This range boost can be bought for $1,600 via the Tesla store via the Tesla mobile app if your Model Y RWD is eligible for the option. This offer is currently only available in the United States.
Before the Model Y RWD Long Range launch in May, Tesla had the base Model Y RWD with 260 miles of range. The new Long Range RWD variant which now had 320 miles of range replaced the previous standard Model Y RWD.
In reality, the new 320-mile Model Y RWD Long Range had the same battery pack as the standard Model Y RWD with an unlocked range. Tesla was not able to offer the additional range due to issues with regulatory approvals. This was confirmed by Elon Musk in an X (Twitter) post at the time, he wrote:
The “260 mile” range Model Y’s built over the past several months actually have more range that can be unlocked for $1500 to $2000 (gains 40 to 60 miles of range), depending on which battery cells you have.
Working through regulatory approvals to enable this.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s comments make it clear that the upgradeable Model Y RWD vehicles are the ones that Tesla sold with the 260 miles of range. These variants were in production since earlier this year. If you have bought a standard Model Y RWD in the last 5 or 6 months in the United States, it’s most probably eligible for the 50 miles of extra range boost.
If a Tesla Model Y RWD vehicle is eligible and the owner pays $1,600 to the company, the range will be locked via a special over-the-air (OTA) software update. This new update is named Energy Boost by Tesla.
The Tesla store (via mobile app or vehicle screen) says:
Energy Boost
Increases battery pack capacity, providing up to an additional 50 miles
Tesla has offered a paid software update to extend a feature after almost 4 years. The 1st paid update was the $2,000 acceleration boost also for the Model Y electric SUV.
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