EV giant Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is now offering more miles of range to its Model Y rear-wheel drive (RWD) owners but for more money.

What Happened: Model Y RWD owners can gain up to 50 miles of additional range with an over-the-air software update priced as much as $1600, Tesla announced on X on Friday. Customers can make their additional range purchase, called Energy Boost, on the Tesla App.

Tesla replaced the rear-wheel drive variant in its Model Y lineup with a long-range rear-wheel drive variant in May. The new variant has a range of 320 miles, much higher than the 260 miles range on the variant it replaced despite having the same starting price of $44,990.

As a resolution for older customers who purchased the RWD variant, Tesla CEO Elon Musk then said the older RWD vehicles built by the company over the past several months can get more range for an additional $1500 to $2000 depending on the battery cells employed. This would add 40 to 60 miles of range to the car, he said, while adding that the company is working through regulatory approvals to enable it.

"We have to pay the bills somehow," Musk said as a reason for the extra charge.

Why It Matters: Tesla has now seemingly got the approvals. While some RWD owners can now get 30 miles of added range for $1000, others can add 50 miles for $1600, depending on the battery cells deployed in their cars.

The Model 3 and Model Y account for a whopping majority of Tesla's overall deliveries. In the second quarter, Tesla delivered 422,405 Model 3 and Model Y, accounting for a whopping 95% of the company's overall global deliveries.

Tesla now offers four variants of the Model 3 in the U.S. and just three variants of the Model Y.

Check out more of Benzinga's Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

Read More:

• Elon Musk, Investors And Grok Wary Of Tesla Stock Tumbling After Jim Cramer Says It Could Touch $1 Trillion Market Cap

Photo via Shutterstock