Tesla has recently launched Energy Boost, a $1,000 or $1,600 option for Model Y Rear Wheel Drive vehicles in the United States.
Elon Musk stated back in May that this upgrade package would be available in the future.
Energy Boost
Energy Boost is an upgrade that unlocks additional range for specific Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive vehicles, in the United States. The upgrade is done in-app, or in-vehicle, and is a software-unlocked range upgrade. To see if your RWD Model Y is eligible navigate to the Upgrades > Software Updates > Buy section of your Tesla app.
This upgrade can provide a range increase of 30 miles or 50 miles, depending on your specific vehicle’s battery chemistry. This means that some of Tesla’s newer Model Y RWD Standard Range models are just software-locked Long Range variants.
Range Increase & Cost
Recent Model Y Rear Wheel Drive vehicles are eligible for the upgrade – cars manufactured approximately in the January 2024 timeframe.
This Energy Boost upgrade will vary depending on the battery chemistry in your vehicle. It will increase your range by 30 miles ($1,000) or 50 miles ($1,600).
As the Canadian Model Y RWDs all come from Giga Shanghai, they are not eligible for a software-unlocked range increase.
Why Software-Lock Batteries?
Its definitely nice to see such an upgrade coming through, especially for those who could use the upgrade, but couldn’t justify picking up a Model Y Long Range at the time. However, there are some qualms behind this.
Historically, Tesla has made several models with software-locked range increases, but they’ve also sometimes installed software-locked batteries in battery replacements. However, there hasn’t really been any consistency with Tesla releasing software-locked batteries in the past as any offerings have been short-lived. It appears that Tesla makes software-locked batteries available only when there’s a very specific reason to do so as opposed to a long-term strategy. We saw a software-locked battery pack introduced in Canada years ago when there was a Canadian incentive for vehicles with a shorter range.
Tesla could also be using Long Range battery packs in SR vehicles if there are supply constraints, but at this point, it’s not clear whether Tesla will continue to offer these battery packs longer-term.
We’d love to see Tesla unlock some of this range – which is already included in the vehicle – for free when the battery degrades. However, this might be what they’re already doing – and it’s far too early to tell just yet.
Advantages for the Consumer
While it may seem wasteful to include more battery cells than required in a vehicle, Tesla will likely pick what’s cheapest for them to manufacture. If we start seeing a high take rate on software-locked battery packs, we could see Tesla continue the trend as it simplifies their manufacturing and creates a fleet monetization plan for Tesla.
There are numerous advantages to the owner of a vehicle with a software-locked battery. Not only can the owner charge to 100% daily without any ill effects, but it also gives the owner additional options down the road.
Someone’s needs may change, or they may want to upgrade the range on the vehicle after it sees some battery degradation or a variety of other reasons. Whatever, the reason, some RWD Model Y owners may have new options in their Tesla app today.
Elon Musk provided a sneak peek into “Cortex”, Tesla’s new AI training center that has been under construction for quite a while at Giga Texas.
Previously, we saw some shots of the new wing for the massive water-cooled supercomputer cluster at Giga Texas, which was being built at the southern end of the Gigafactory.
AI4 Training
Cortex appears to be the name of the supercomputer cluster, and we can assume that it will be referred to that way from now on. Cortex will primarily focus on exploring and expanding FSD’s performance envelope to include AI4, which will begin to diverge from HW3 sometime soon. Tesla hasn’t yet unlocked the full potential of AI4, as it still runs HW3 in emulation mode, but with a few extra tricks that HW3 doesn’t have access to. These are mostly hardware compiler changes, but they make a significant difference in the speed of processing the AI model.
Tesla intends to continue supporting HW3, but it's already apparent that the FSD model for HW3 is smaller than the model for AI4. However, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Autopilot program director, expects performance to be similar for the most part.
One other thing that Cortex will likely be tackling is not just FSD in cars – but FSD in Optimus. Optimus uses the same principal technology behind FSD for movement, as well as understanding and learning tasks, so we can expect to see plenty of improvements as Tesla is now getting Cortex online.
Video of the inside of Cortex today, the giant new AI training supercluster being built at Tesla HQ in Austin to solve real-world AI pic.twitter.com/DwJVUWUrb5
What’s most interesting is that this new supercomputer cluster isn’t Tesla’s Dojo Supercomputers. Instead, this Cortex cluster is instead based on Nvidia’s H100 GPUs. Dojo was supposed to be Tesla’s in-house designed and specialized AI GPUs, meant to focus on optimizing FSD.
Dojo isn’t dead – but delayed from the sounds of it. We’re excited to see where Cortex takes Tesla in the future, and when Dojo shows up to join the party.
Tesla has lowered the price for both the CCS adapter, as well as CCS retrofits for its entire lineup throughout North America. This includes a reduction in price for the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
CCS Adapter
Tesla has dropped the price of the CCS (Combo 1 – North America) from $250 USD to $125 USD ($345 CAD to $175 CAD). That’s a straight 50% price reduction, making Tesla’s OEM CCS Adapter one of the cheapest on the market.
CCS1 was the non-Tesla standard for EVs, prior to Tesla opening the NACS standard. Tesla vehicles that have completed the retrofit, or are built after the retrofit date, can use a CCS adapter to charge at any regular CCS station.
CCS Retrofit
The CCS retrofit enables Tesla vehicles before around September 2022 (depending on model and region) to charge at CCS stations using a compatible CCS-to-NACS adapter. Vehicles built before that date won’t be able to charge at CCS stations without this retrofit. The retrofit also comes with a complementary CCS adapter.
You cannot unbundle the CCS adapter from the retrofit purchase to reduce the price.
The retrofit has different pricing for the Model S/X and the Model 3/Y.
Vehicle
USD (New)
USD (Previous)
CAD (New)
CAD (Previous)
Model S / Model X
$300
$450
$415
$615
Model 3 / Model Y
$225
$350
$310
$475
How to Check If You Need a Retrofit
If you’re not sure whether your vehicle is CCS capable, you can go to Controls > Software > Additional Vehicle Information. It will show a line near the middle titled “CCS Charging and third-party NACS DC charging.” Next to it it will show whether your vehicle supports third-party CCS charging or whether you'll need a retrofit.
NACS to CCS
And that’s not all – Tesla has drastically increased the production of the NACS to CCS adapter for non-NACS vehicles that are Tesla Supercharger approved, hitting a new record of 8,000 units per week.
Tesla has made massive strides in bringing one standard and improving the efficiency and up-time of EV charging throughout North America, and we’re glad to see them continuing this trend as they move forward.
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![A Look at Tesla's New AI Training Center at Giga Texas [VIDEO]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/img/containers/article_images/computing/dojo_exapod.webp/b226b800ce82f29489944492f5c464c9/dojo_exapod.jpg)
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