In like a lion and out like a lamb; Tesla’s stepping stone to its Standard Range Model 3 has officially been taken off the market. In a move unannounced Sunday, the automaker quietly pulled the Mid Range battery configuration from its ordering page, leaving only various Standard and Long Range configurations available for purchase.
Previously, the $42,900 configuration bridged the gap between the Standard Range and Long Range batteries by offering 264 miles of range. The Standard Range Plus is still available to purchase, enabling owners to achieve 240 miles of range for $37,000. The next step up is the rear-wheel-drive Long Range variant which offers 325 miles of range for $43,000. A premium of 16 percent will have more people doing the Tesla Stretch in order to gain an additional 85 miles of range on a single charge.
Those who have followed Tesla’s price swings knew that this particular cut would be coming at some point in the near future. Tesla has begun standardizing its range and model names fleet-wide for some time, offering three typical trims: Standard Range, Long Range, and Performance.
CEO Elon Musk has openly stated that the reason that the automaker released the mid-range was to have a more affordable version of the Model 3 available to customers four to six months before it could release its Standard Range Model 3. With the ordering of the automaker’s Standard Range released last month, the stop-gap is no longer deemed necessary for the automaker.
Moreover, the newly announced Model Y was not announced with a Mid Range battery pack option. Since the vehicle is built on the same platform as the Model 3 and shares 75 percent of its parts with the sedan, it may have been a hint that the option would be soon disappearing from the Model 3 configurator.
Tesla has announced that it will increase pricing fleet-wide (with the exception of the $35,000 Standard Range Model 3) this week.