Many can, and what an update changes varies from a display fix to charging behaviour or grid-compliance settings. Whether a unit supports updates, how they are applied and what they alter is stated by the maker, and it is worth checking before buying rather than after.
Firmware turns a piece of hardware into something that can change after purchase, in both directions.
What updates commonly fix
Display and reporting errors, communication between devices, and behaviour at the edges of the operating range. Those are the routine cases and they are usually described in a release note.
What updates sometimes change
Charging profiles, current limits, protection thresholds and compliance behaviour on grid-connected equipment. These are substantive, and a maker that publishes release notes is telling you what its product does now as opposed to what it did.
How updates are applied
Over a data connection to an application, from a memory card, or through a dealer tool. Whether the operation can be done by the owner, whether it can be reversed, and what happens if it is interrupted are all product-specific and all documented by makers who take it seriously.
What a release history is worth at purchase
A promised future feature is not a specification. What the unit does today is, and the release history is the best available evidence of whether the maker keeps its products current or ships and moves on.
What people ask before they order
Can an update change how a battery is charged?
It can, and makers document it when it does. On grid-connected equipment an update may also adjust behaviour required by a grid standard, which is one reason the capability exists at all.
What if a unit cannot be updated?
Then it behaves for its whole life as it behaves today, which is an argument for buying on measured behaviour rather than on a promised improvement.
Last reviewed 16 September 2026