As suddenly as the $35,000 Tesla Model 3 had appeared, the $35,000 model has disappeared from Tesla's online ordering menu. It's a menu that a very short time ago would have replaced nearly all Tesla stores but is now not replacing them because the automaker backpedaled on a decision to close them.
In the latest major shakeup to its model range just in 2019, Tesla has reshuffled a number of options and prices for its most affordable model.
For starters, all Tesla vehicles will now be offered with the Autopilot semiautonomous driver assist system. "For example, Model 3 Standard Plus used to cost $37,500, plus $3,000 for the Autopilot option. It now costs $39,500, with Autopilot included," the automaker said.
The move is tied to the company's greater emphasis on semiautonomous tech in its cars, which has led to Tesla offering a controversially named "Full Self-Driving Capability" that adds highway on-ramp and off-ramp ability, promises stop sign and traffic light recognition later this year, but still requires driver attention at all times and does "not make the vehicle autonomous," in contrast to what one would expect from a system that promises, you know, "Full Self-Driving." To be fair, you yourself would still be driving no matter what, so in that sense it could be thought of as "self-driving."
Tesla will also offer leasing for the Model 3, but, curiously enough, you will not be able to buy one at the end of the lease as the company plans to use off-lease cars as part of an upcoming ride-hailing network. The automaker will offer lessees the option of 10,000-, 12,000- and 15,000-mile annual options, with a minimum lease deposit of $3,000 and an amount due at signing that starts at $4,199 and stretches to over $4,500 depending on the spec of the Model 3.
The most jarring, if not completely unexpected, move of the latest reshuffle was the removal of the long-awaited $35,000 Model 3 — well, $36,200 with destination — from the online menu. Customers will still be able to order one from a store, just not online.
"Given the popularity of the Standard Plus relative to the Standard, we have made the decision to simplify our production operations to better optimize cost, minimize complexity and streamline operations," Tesla said. "As a result, Model 3 Standard will now be a software-limited version of the Standard Plus, and we are taking it off the online ordering menu, which just means that to get it, customers will need to call us or visit any one of the several hundred Tesla stores. Deliveries of Model 3 Standard will begin this weekend."
That's right: Deliveries haven't even begun, but it's already being sidelined from the main menu.
This move presents a bit of a problem for Tesla, which promised a budget variant of the Model 3 several years ago, failed to deliver on it until weeks ago, and is now making it harder to buy this proletarian-spec Model 3 days before the first examples are even delivered to buyers. The $35,000 Model 3 had been a thorn in Tesla's side for some time even as the company warned that it wouldn't actually get to making it for a while, opting for pricier models with their fatter profit margins for financial reasons, but the $35,000 Model 3 featured prominently in company promises when the Model 3 was first announced. Now, it has become a bit of an asterisk which one cannot even order online.
The removal of the $35,000 Model 3 from the online menu won't do much to Tesla's bottom line, but it does expose the promise of the $35,000 Model 3 as a bit hollow. Wasn't this the version that was supposed to get people out of their gas-engined cars and into electrics? What about the investors who had relied on promises of this version for years? The $35,000 Model 3 was simultaneously used as a prop for politicians, investors and the car-buying public, but now it is apparently an off-menu item that isn't important anymore. There is a disconnect there.
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