Tesla has increased the price of the Model Y Long Range in the United States and Puerto Rico, less than two weeks after the automaker slashed the price of the electric SUV by 20%.
According to an update to the online configurator on Monday night, the price of the entry-level Model Y has increased by $500, putting the new starting price at $53,490. (h/t: @SawyerMerritt) In an internal notification sent to Tesla employees on Monday, a copy of which was obtained by Drive Tesla, the automaker says the price change is effective for orders placed after the update to the online configurator on January 23.
There has been no change to the price of the Model Y Performance, and prices in other markets, including Canada, have remained the same for both variants.
The new higher price does not impact the Model Ys eligibility for the $7,500 US tax credit as it still sits below the $55,000 MSRP limit. So the question then becomes why did Tesla increase the price of this one variant by just $500 after slashing its price by $13,000 less than two weeks ago?
It could be that Tesla is sending a signal to buyers who are interested but haven’t yet placed an order that the price isn’t going to stay this low indefinitely, and that if they want to get behind the wheel of the safest car on the roads today they should place their order now.
If they do they won’t have to wait very long as the Design Studio is showing an estimated delivery window of between January and March 2023.
Since cutting the price of the Model Y on January 12, Tesla has seen their inventory drop steadily and before tonight’s price increase Model Y inventory in the US was sitting at around 200 units. This is well off the high of close to 1,400 units on the night they dropped their prices, but it is still above the inventory levels Tesla was seeing in October, according to an inventory tracker created by Matt Jung.
With tonight’s price increase it would not be surprising to see the inventory drop even further as a $500 increase is small enough to not be a deterrent to place an order, but at the same time it is enough to potentially push someone over the line and click order now.
