Current Events > Tesla plans to charge some Tesla Y users to unlock more range; pending approval

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/5/24149447/tesla-model-y-software-locked-battery-capacity

Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on Friday that the Standard Range rear-wheel drive Model Y the company has been building and selling over the last several months actually has more range than the 260 miles they were sold with. Pending regulatory approval, he wrote that the company will unlock another 4060 miles of total range, depending on which battery Model Y owners have, for $1,500 to $2,000.
Tesla replaced the Standard Range Model Y with a 320-mile range version for $2,000 more. The car now starts at $44,990, or about $37,490 if you qualify for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.
This isnt the first time Tesla has software-locked its cars range. The company revealed back in 2016 that the 70kWh battery in the Model S 70 actually had 75kWh of capacity that customers could pay more than $3,000 to access. Its possible that the current Model S and X cars, which weigh the same as their longer-range counterparts, have also been software-limited.
The auto industry, in general, has been trending toward controlling access to cars existing features with pay-to-remove software locks. Polestar started selling a $1,200 over-the-air update to boost the Polestar 2s performance in 2022. Mercedes-Benz charged the same amount, but annually, to improve the horsepower and torque of the EQE and EQS. BMW once paywalled software-locked CarPlay and, later, heated seats (the company later dropped that plan). And of course, Tesla has proven itself willing to remotely disable paid-for features when one of its cars is resold.

Man, I love driving but I want absolutely nothing to do with anything about the modern car industry.

Let the whole car market burn.

car microtransactions being a thing is hilarious and also disturbing

I saw this, its very much on brand

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I would drive all the way to my water company and just shit in their parking lot every time I had to use the bathroom

Any alternatives to Tesla?

Yeah, they did this with the Standard range Model 3 as well. It was like 10% more range or something. Kinda stupid considering it's software locked. So the car is still carrying the weight of the batteries, but it can't even use all of it.

Humble_Novice posted...

Any alternatives to Tesla?

Hyundai Ionic series, Volkswagen ID4, and Kia EV series probably

Car DLC, fucking amazing.

emblem-man posted...

Yeah, they did this with the Standard range Model 3 as well. It was like 10% more range or something. Kinda stupid considering it's software locked. So the car is still carrying the weight of the batteries, but it can't even use all of it.

Imagine you're locked to 260 miles and you're 20 miles from the nearest charger. That'd be such a kick in the dick to know the car literally can, but won't because of a dumb fucking software block.

At least in an ICE car if you run out of gas that's because there is literally no gas left.

The Ioniq 6 looks amazing.

Would recommend holding off on buying into one now though, Hyundai and VW (at least, there are probably others) are developing solid state batteries that promise faster charging and longer ranges.

edit: The Ioniq 6 is the cheapest car (of all cars) in most US markets to lease though.

Wow, this lack of regulations is sure working out great for everyone!

Software companies taking notes how they can sell a freaking software update for 2,000$.

Hell, I'm working in a small software company, and our software isn't cheap either, but that?

Utterly insane, and it would still find buyers.

Look at where the horse armor has taken us.

EVs got practical at the worst time. All this anti-customer shit is going to be associated with EVs and the auto industry is happy to let it be the case. EVs stand to become much cheaper than internal combustion vehicles, but the auto industry will be nickel and diming until that's no longer the case, just like how video games are so much cheaper to distribute digitally than physically (especially when compared to cartridges) but now are broken up into a million different pieces of DLC that altogether cost more.

Hexenherz posted...

The Ioniq 6 looks amazing.

Would recommend holding off on buying into one now though, Hyundai and VW (at least, there are probably others) are developing solid state batteries that promise faster charging and longer ranges.

edit: The Ioniq 6 is the cheapest car (of all cars) in most US markets to lease though.

I really like how the ioniq 6 looks for sure.

Man, I feel like companies have been making these claims about solid state batteries for years now.

emblem-man posted...

I really like how the ioniq 6 looks for sure.

Man, I feel like companies have been making these claims about solid state batteries for years now.

Maybe they have, I only just started really paying attention the past six months or so because I wanted to get into a new car.

Hyundai seem pretty committed to their EV lineup though, I think they shut down their ICE factory temporarily to focus on EV manufacturing recently.

wackyteen posted...

Imagine you're locked to 260 miles and you're 20 miles from the nearest charger. That'd be such a kick in the dick to know the car literally can, but won't because of a dumb fucking software block.

At least in an ICE car if you run out of gas that's because there is literally no gas left.

Yep. I think the rationale is that it allows them to sell two variants at two different price points, but keep the same (battery) manufacturing line.
But ehh, it's still shitty and the price difference isn't that big a difference

I refuse to ever own a Tesla because of Musk.

Im kinda concerned about the Tesla supercharger network falling to ruin now that Elons dumb ass has fired the whole supercharger team. The charging infrastructure was something that set Tesla apart from other EVs.