Tesla has announced that car prices are set to take a bit of a hike, just over a week since it announced price reductions. To be clear, prices should still be lower than before because underperforming stores will still be shut down, but not as many as originally planned will be closed. In the statement, the firm said that "the more expensive variants of Model 3, as well as Model S and X" would see price hikes of around 3% from March 18th. It did clarify that the newly announced $35,000 Model 3 would retain its price.
Since announcing the initial price reduction, the firm has been reviewing every Tesla retail location. Following the review, it decided to keep significantly more stores open than it anticipated and has also opted to reopen high visibility stores that were closed due to low throughput but with reduced crew sizes. Tesla still has another 20% of its locations to review and the fate of those will be determined in the coming months depending on their performance.
The firm still plans to keep the online retail model going:
“To be clear, all sales worldwide will still be done online, in that potential Tesla owners coming in to stores will simply be shown how to order a Tesla on their phone in a few minutes. And the generous return policy of 1000 miles or 7 days, whichever comes first, should alleviate the need for most test drives. However, cars will still be available for test drives at stores at the potential Tesla owner’s request. Stores will also carry a small number of cars in inventory for customers who wish to drive away with a Tesla immediately."
So, if you were thinking about buying a Tesla that’s not the $35,000 Model 3, you may want to speed up your decision so that you get the vehicle at a lower price.