Tesla Model Y has already had its first price hike
Tesla's first crossover SUV is still well over a year away, but the Model Y is already getting more expensive as part of yet another pricing tweak.
If you've been sitting on the fence about ordering yourself a shiny new Tesla, the company hasn't exactly been making it easy for you. Announcements about various price cuts followed shortly by subsequent hikes could make an uncommitted buyer feel even less ready to pull the trigger. Over the weekend, Elon Musk announced another round of price increases, while the new Model Y crossover SUV saw a bit of a bump itself.
Just to get you up to speed, this most recent round of fluctuations started in January, when the company announced a series of price cuts on its vehicles. Later that month, with the company reshuffling its model designations, another cut was made. About a month later came the news that Tesla would shut down its retail operations, a move expected to lower prices even further.
That all seemed like good news from a dollars-and-cents standpoint, but that plan only lasted a few weeks. Tesla announced that it would not be closing retail, but would instead hike prices on all its vehicles by approximately three percent.
On Sunday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced an impending three percent increase on pricing of all Tesla cars in the company's inventory. This isn't an additional three percent on top of the other hike, however. It's simply bringing the price of those cars already in inventory (already manufactured but unsold) up to match the online pricing of a new car. This change goes into effect on April 2.
Add $1,000 to all of the above.
But that wasn't the only change made over the weekend. As Electrek notes, pricing of the Model Y has also been increased by $1,000 across the board. The Long Range Model Y, for example, was to start at $47,000, and early orders placed on that car reflected that amount. Now, however, the base price of that car is $48,000. The top-shelf Model Y Performance has increased from $60,000 to $61,000. We've reached out to Tesla for clarification on these changes.
In Tesla's defense, traditional car companies frequently change the pricing of their cars as well. However, those changes are typically handled at the dealership level through incentives or other offers. This leaves the standard MSRP fixed. Tesla generally eschews incentive pricing, meaning any changes to the cost of its cars must be handled at a higher, and thus more public, level.
That said, changing the pricing structure on a car that's still 18 months away, just weeks after its unveiling, is unusual to say the least.
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