Tesla has mysteriously pulled the Model Y All-Wheel Drive (AWD) from its website in the US. The Model Y AWD in the US was the variant built at Giga Texas and the only one featuring Tesla’s 4680 battery cells.
The Model Y AWD was first introduced back in April 2022 with the opening of Giga Texas. This particular variant of the Model Y was the first to include Tesla’s next generation 4680 battery cells inside a structural battery pack. Production was slow at first however as Giga Texas ramped production of the battery cells, with it proving to be enough of a constraint that soon after the factory opened Tesla added the Long Range variant with 2170 cells to the factory’s production lines.
Production continued to be slow enough that Tesla didn’t actually add the Model Y AWD to its Design Studio to allow customers to order until a year later in April 2023, with the previous offerings only being available on existing inventory. It has also never been available to Canadian customers.
However just five months after it was added the online configurator, it has been removed. Now the only Model Y variants still available for purchase in the US are the Long Range AWD and the Performance. (h/t: @SawyerMerritt)
The last list price of the Model Y AWD before it was removed was US$47,740.
While it is no longer available to custom order, there are still hundreds of Model Y AWDs available on the existing inventory section of Tesla’s website.
Tesla has of course been silent on why the Model Y AWD has been removed from the configurator, leaving fans to speculate on why it is no longer available. Some thought it could be that Tesla is wanting to set aside all 4680 production for the Cybertruck, although we’re not so sure for at least a couple of reasons. The first is that back in July Tesla’s senior VP for powertrain and energy engineering Drew Baglino said the Cybertruck would be launch with a new version of the 4680 battery that has around a 10% higher energy density. Based on this comment it appears that Tesla is not going to be using the same 4680 cell it currently uses in the Model Y as it will in the Cybertruck.
Another reason is that the Cybertruck hasn’t officially entered series production yet. Even if the Model Y AWD and the Cybertruck were to use the same 4680 cell, Cybertruck production levels will be low enough through the end of 2023 that it likely wouldn’t significantly effect what is needed for the Model Y, especially levels high enough for Tesla to pull the electric SUV altogether.
It is worth noting that the Model Y production lines at Giga Texas are currently down, and have been for over a week. This was a planned outage for maintenance and upgrades, but maybe Tesla ran into some issues?
Why do you think the Model Y AWD was removed? Let us know in the comments below.
