Starting next month, Tesla has decided to curtail the sale of its cheapest electric vehicle, which is the Model S sedan with a 60 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery pack. This development has come to light via an email notification being sent by the automaker to its customers.
Tesla is currently accepting orders for the said Model S variant only until April 16, post which the listing for the vehicle with a 60 kWh battery pack would be removed from the website. The Model S 60 and 60 D (with all-wheel drive) are currently available for purchase at around $68,000, but this entry price will soon increase to $74,500. You’ll then have to get a Model S with a 75kWh battery pack.
Last year, the automaker had debuted a cheaper variant of its Model S sedan to make electric vehicles accessible to more people. This variant came equipped with a 75 kWh battery pack which was software-locked to access only 80 percent of the juice (i.e 60kWh). The automaker then provided owners the option to get this unlocked if they wanted more power and distance from their EVs — for a huge fee of $9,500.
But Telsa, in the email notification, notes that most people preferred picking up the 75 kWh variant instead of the 60 kWh one. And it also saw most buyers unlocking the battery pack to utilize the complete 75 kilowatt-hours packed into their vehicles. It was equivalent to the cheaper variant and provided them with similar speed and mileage figures. Thus, Tesla is removing the Model S 60 and 60 D to streamline the ordering process. It has already removed the Model X 60D from its lineup.
Here’s the complete notification received by Tesla customers:
One year ago, we introduced the Model S 60 kWh battery as a more affordable option to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles. However, most customers ended up buying an equivalent to the Model S 75 kWh. To simplify the ordering process for our customers, we will be removing the 60 kWh option from our lineup.
Customers who still want the opportunity to own a 60 kWh Model S will have until April 16, 2017 to place their order. Any 60 kWh Model S will have the ability to upgrade their battery to 75 kWh via an over the air update.
Also, by the end of this year, Tesla is planning to introduce the Model 3, an even affordable and cheaper variant of its electric vehicles to the market internationally. The company has raised an additional $1.2 billion through a share and debt sale to kick-start production of its Model 3 vehicles. It has already started making changes to its facilities in Fremont and Nevada to help support the massive goal of producing 5,000 cars per week this year. It plans to increase it to 10,000 in 2018 to meet its goals, with a release in India expected this Summer.
