Tesla changes tack, again, delays EV price rise due to increased sales

The Driven

Californian electric carmaker Tesla has said it will delay an increase in prices for its Model S, Model X and premium Model 3 vehicles that it was to implement on Monday night, USA time.

In what has seemed to some to be a yoyo of decisions by the EV maker of late, it was to add an approximate 3 per cent to the prices of most of its electric vehicle lineup on Monday night not long after it recently dropped prices for the Model S and Model X by up to 33 per cent.

But instead of adding the price rise, the carmaker has now said that it will wait another two days, because sales volume was so high it was not able to process all the orders in time for the cut off.

Here’s how it happened:

Tesla’s CEO and founder Elon Musk has been promising for ages to bring out a Model 3 electric sedan at a price that would see it affordable for a much wider market, at $US35,000 ($A49,400 at today’s rates).

To bring this much anticipated vehicle to market, the carmaker had to reduce costs in a variety of ways, including cutting 7 per cent of its staff, and removing its referral program, and in “hundreds of small ways”, as Musk said at the Q4 2018 earnings call earlier this year.

Read the full story on RenewEconomy’s electric vehicle-dedicated site, The Driven…