Elon Musk Says There’s A Way To Unlock More Range In Tesla Model Y

The Tesla CEO announced via X that the higher range can be unlocked by paying an amount of $1,500 to $2,000.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to his other company, X, to announce that Tesla Model Y owners can unlock more range by paying $1,500 to $2,000. However, he also clarifies that it will depend on the battery cells your EV has. This means that this unlocking of more range is not across the board. Furthermore, he states the owners can experience a bump in range in the vicinity of 40 to 60 miles (64 to 96 km). Tesla is working through regulatory approvals to enable this.

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More Range in Tesla Model Y

This announcement came in response to a tweet by Sawyer Merritt which mentions that Tesla has launched a brand new Long Range RWD Model Y variant in the U.S. It has a price tag of $44,990 which can go as low as $37,490 after the Federal EV credit. It offers a range of 320 miles (515 km). For comparison, the outgoing Model Y RWD had 260 miles (418 km) of range. But it has now been discontinued. It looks like Tesla wants to earn some extra bucks by unlocking extra range in the discontinued EVs.

A certain Ethan commented on this announcement by saying, “Why not just give it for free?”. To this, Musk replied, “We have to pay the bills tomorrow”. This is in line with what has been happening at Tesla lately. We know that Elon had to fire the entire Supercharger team to cut costs. Charging $1,500 to $2,000 to unlock a feature which is already there in a car is also a step in that very direction.

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Learn Electric Cars Says

It fascinates me to see how well-equipped Tesla cars already are. The technology is so advanced that even the owners don’t know what their EVs are capable of. Moreover, we already know that Tesla offers a myriad of hardware components which support autonomous driving (called the Autopilot in Tesla’s parlance) well before the technology is available. Being the visionary that Elon is, he has kept the provision for the future in the current cars. Hence, knowing that the existing batteries can offer a surge in range is not that alien afte all.