Teslas $ 35,000 model 3 is still not here
On February 28, Tesla announced that it was finally ordering the long-promised $ 35,000 (or "Standard Range") version of Model 3, and at that time, its estimated customers would have to wait two to four weeks to accept. It is now only shy of four weeks later, and it appears that the company may not have sent a single, while customers who have placed orders are told that these cars have been delayed indefinitely, according to new reports in The Drive and Tesla fan blog Electrek.
Drevets Ed Niedermeyer discovered several reports on Reddit and various Tesla forums ̵[ads1]1; such as Tesla Motors Club, Tesla Global Owners Club, even one on Tesla's own site – where customers have received Text from the company tells them that their deliveries are delayed. These customers have reportedly not been given a new delivery date in these texts, and while some have seen the estimate in their electronic accounts change to "six to eight" weeks, Tesla reps have told them they do not trust these numbers. (This "six to eight" weekly figure also shows up new orders on the Tesla website.)
Meanwhile, some of these customers claim that Tesla Employees have contacted them after the delay to get them to buy more expensive Model 3s, like the "Standard Range Plus" version starting at $ 37,500, which is a hair faster, and offers a little better selection. Electrek reports to see some of the same claims, but with far fewer receipts than The Drive .
Tesla refused to comment in response to a number of questions from The Verge .
In some ways this fits into the approach Tesla has taken through his story. The company recently started making large-scale cars, and has traditionally sold more expensive versions of its cars first to collect higher margins it uses to bend the production of cheaper models. In fact, CEO Elon Musk last year said that the company had to sell more expensive versions of the car, so that the company would not die. But as both The Drive and Electrek point out, it is strange to see one of Tesla's cars delayed so close to the end of a financial quarter when the company again increases internal pressure to deliver as many cars as possible.
Waiting a few weeks for a premium electric car may not look like a big deal. But there is a ticking clock here, which is that Tesla's cars slowly lose the qualification for the federal electric vehicle tax credit. The company passed 200,000 electric cars sold in North America last summer, which is a landmark government put in place so credit doesn't last forever. From January 1 this year, buyers were only eligible to receive a $ 3,750 credit. It falls again on July 1 to $ 1,875, and expires fully at the end of the year.
More versatile, the apparent delay shows that Tesla was not ready to deliver on the promise of a $ 35,000 version of Model 3 when it made the end of February announcement. Remember, this car debuted almost three years ago, and the final version was shown two years ago. Thousands of people on the pre-order list have probably expected to order the most affordable version of Tesla's mass market car since then. It took all those years, production hell, delivery logistics hell, and the decision to close a bunch of warehouses to get to the point where Tesla finally felt comfortable, announcing $ 35,000 model 3 last month. But this week it seems that there is still a bit more work to do.