Tesla’s Cheapest Model Y Is No Longer Available

Tesla has removed the cheapest version of its Model Y from its website and configurator, weeks after launching the ‘Standard Range’ and days after reducing the price of the entry-level Model Y by $2,000, making the new model more unattainable for the average car buyer.

Tesla launched the Standard Model Y for pre-order last month, with an estimated range per EPA at 244 miles. Elon Musk had said on Twitter in July last year that the Standard Range Model Y would not be made because its range would be “would be unacceptably low (< 250 mile EPA).”

However, at the start of this year, Tesla did launch the cheaper Standard Range Model Y version, only to take it down from its configurator a month and a half later.

The Standard Range Model Y was priced in January at $41,990, and the price was cut by $2,000 last week, making the Standard Range Model Y priced at $39,990, only $3,000 more than the Model 3 standard range plus.

On Sunday, Electrek reported that the Model Y Standard Range had been taken down from the configurator as the EV manufacturer has apparently stopped taking orders for the cheapest Model Y.

According to Electrek, it’s not clear yet whether Tesla is canceling the cheapest Model Y or whether this is just a temporary pause in taking orders.

One of the reasons for trying to sell higher-priced cars now could be the possibility of new federal tax credits for electric vehicles that would make Teslas eligible for tax credits again and push profit margins lower if Tesla were to sell more of its cheapest model versions, according to analyst Andy Slye quoted by InsideEVs.

Tesla is often changing the prices of its vehicles in all markets.

Most recently, Tesla has slashed the prices for the standard and long-range versions of Model 3 in Japan by 24 percent, Bloomberg reported last week, as the EV maker is still struggling to meaningfully boost its sales in the country despite being present there since 2014. 

The price reduction for Tesla Model 3 in Japan is the first time the EV maker has slashed prices for the model. The new pricing policy coincides with the start of Model 3 vehicles imported into Japan from Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai in China instead of from the United States, a source with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.  

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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