Elon Musk has warned that Tesla may stop taking orders for some of its vehicles due to demand far exceeding current production levels.
Musk made issued the warning while speaking at the Financial Times Future of the Car summit on Tuesday, saying that Tesla’s main frustration is not low levels of demand for its electric vehicles but producing enough of them.
When host Peter Campbell suggested that the production problems were due to the ongoing supply chain issues that have been plaguing all automakers, Musk clarified that demand has exceeded production well before the shortages began.
In fact, Musk said demand is exceeding production “to a ridiculous degree,” so much so that they may limit, or stop taking orders entirely due to lengthy delivery wait times.
“We’re actually probably going to limit or just stop taking orders for anything beyond a certain period of time because some of the timing is like a year away,” Musk said.
Musk didn’t clarify which vehicles he was referring to, but a leading candidate would be the Model Y. Base configurations are expected to be delivered as far away as May 2023 for customers in North America. Delivery wait times for the Model 3 are slightly better at December 2022 for the entry-level variant with no options selected.
The Model X is another vehicle that could see its order books closed. The Design Studio says new orders of the flagship SUV when equipped with the optional 22″ Turbine wheels won’t be delivered until April 2023.
One way in which Tesla has attempted to slow down the demand is by increasing its prices. Just last week Tesla raised prices on their entire lineup in Canada, bumping up the Model 3 by as much as $3,000. The Model Y saw lesser price increases, but even still is now priced $14,000 higher than it was late last year.
You can watch the full interview below.
