The affordable Tesla Model 3 says goodbye

Tesla will discontinue its $35,000 USD Model 3 Standard spec as soon as the affordable battery sedan gets its refresh heading into 2021.

The reasoning behind this is quite mundane: back when the company announced the Model 3, it had hoped to be able to sell it starting from $35,000. Delays in production raised the expenses, and when the cars started to arrive, many customers found them inadequate to the price. To stay true to its promises, the automaker trimmed down its $38,000 Standard Plus spec to sell it as the Standard instead, clamping down on the features and the driving range. This still entailed a loss of profits.

The Standard spec disappeared from the online car configurator at first, but customers were still able to order one via phone or a dealership. A year and a half later, the spec is leaving the range for good. You can still try to grab one of the pre-facelift sedans while they are available, but you won’t be able to do so in 2021.

Starting next year, the Tesla Model 3 Standard Plus will be considered the new base spec, and it will ship attractively priced at just $36,490 instead of the original $38,000.