Tesla has been on a streak of price cuts over the last year — but now, the streak is ending thanks to a price hike on the Model Y Long Range.
According to Electrek, the electric automaker has been steadily slashing prices in 2022 and 2023, primarily because the company's production capacity has exceeded its rate of orders. Elon Musk claimed that the softened demand is due to increased interest rates that make it more difficult for customers to pay for cars.
Now, after around a dozen price cuts in the last year, the company has announced its most significant price increase since investors started biting their nails: the Model Y Long Range has increased by $500 to $48,990, increasing about 1% of its previous price. The move indicates that the company is seeing expanded demand for the vehicle.
According to the company's website, the Model Y has a range of 330 miles and can seat up to seven passengers in three rows.
Electric vehicles, at any price, are a win for the environment. Since traditional passenger cars produce about 3.3 billion tons of carbon pollution every year, it's clear that we need greener alternatives to make transportation less destructive to our planet. Companies like Tesla and its rivals like Rivian are helping pave the way toward a cooler future.
The company is also shifting the way we power our homes, transforming the power grid, and producing semi trucks to change commercial trucking as we know it.
Electrek commenters speculated on the strategy behind the price shift.
"I think this is a way of communicating that the order backlog has grown and we shouldn't wait for another price cut anytime soon," one user wrote.
"Rising prices means the backlog is getting [too] long. Raising prices by just a small amount means the backlog is only a little bit long," another user commented.
"Elon is just dangling the carrot a bit for the shareholders," a third user suggested.
Join our free newsletter for cool news and actionable info that makes it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.
Cool Picks
