Tesla remotely extends car batteries to help with Hurricane Michael

Enlarge / A Tesla Motors Inc. Model S P85D vehicle sits plugged in at a charging station in Nephi, Utah, on Tuesday, April 7, 2015. (credit: George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Some Tesla Model S and Model X customers in the path of Hurricane Michael will get a little extra boost in the coming days thanks to a remote software update from Tesla headquarters that temporarily increases the battery capacity of its cars.

This is at least the third time Tesla has done this. Tesla did the same thing for customers affected by Hurricane Florence last month and for Hurricane Irma last year. The upgrades provide Tesla customers with up to 40 miles of additional range.

The update is possible because Tesla sold some Model X and Model S cars with more battery capacity in hardware than the customer actually paid for. Tesla sometimes shipped 75kWh batteries to customers who had only paid for 60kWh or 70kWh worth of battery capacity. In other cases, Tesla shipped 60kWh batteries to people who had ordered 40kWh batteries.