The story of the Standard Range (SR) Model Y in North America doesn’t appear to be over just yet. The entry-level variant of the electric SUV debuted on the Design Studio in January, only to be abruptly removed less than one month later.
CEO Elon Musk said it was discontinued due to its range of 244 miles (393km) not living up to the “Tesla standard of excellence.”
That all changed when five months later the car reappeared in the Design Studio in China, and later Hong Kong as well. The SR Model Y built at Giga Shanghai was slightly different in that it featured a larger 60kWh battery pack with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells from CATL.
According to the latest rumour the SR Model Y will make a return to Fremont later this year and will feature the same LFP battery pack from China. Twitter user Ryan (@MilMileBattery) gathered the information from a source who has been reliable in the past and said it will likely be back on the Design Studio sometime in the fourth quarter.
With the larger battery pack, Tesla is reportedly targeting a range of 295 miles (474km). In July last year Musk said a car with less than 250 miles (402km) of range would be unacceptable, so this should be more than enough to meet his standard of excellence.
Also lending credence to the rumour is Tesla’s sudden announcement yesterday that it is now selling SR+ Model 3s in North America with LFP battery packs from China.
If and when it does return, the price is still undecided, but according to Ryan should be about the same as before ($39,990 USD), plus any price increases that have taken place since it was discontinued in February. That should put it around $43,000 USD.
Given that there have been no price increases in Canada, it could again be priced at $56,290 CAD. Could Tesla then introduce a cheaper, software locked version to get it to qualify for the federal iZEV rebate? We’ll have to wait and see, but they did most of the legwork for that earlier this year.
https://twitter.com/MilMileBattery/status/1431069945903845376
