Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on Friday that the Commonplace Vary rear-wheel drive Mannequin Y the corporate has been constructing and promoting “over the past a number of months” really has extra vary than the 260 miles they had been offered with. Pending “regulatory approval,” he wrote that the corporate will unlock one other 40–60 miles of complete vary, relying on which battery Mannequin Y house owners have, “for $1,500 to $2,000.”
This isn’t the primary time Tesla has software-locked its vehicles’ vary. The corporate revealed again in 2016 that the 70kWh battery within the Mannequin S 70 really had 75kWh of capability that clients may pay greater than $3,000 to entry. It’s potential that the present Mannequin S and X vehicles, which weigh the identical as their longer-range counterparts, have additionally been software-limited.