Tesla is planning to raise the price of its most vehicles, as it reverses plans to close most of its physical retail stores around the world.
The electric car maker says the average costs of vehicles will go up by 3% worldwide from March 18. The price hike applies to all vehicles except for the newly-announced base Model 3 car, which will remain at $35,000.
Tesla’s decision to boost the prices is directly related to a revaluation of the decision to close almost all of its brick-and-mortar showrooms.
After closing down around 10% of stores that lacked natural foot traffic in the last few weeks, the company has now decided to “keep significantly more stores open than previously announced.” Previously, Tesla had said the store closures would offset the need to raise prices by 6%, but that is now being revised.
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In a blog post, the company explains: “As a result of keeping significantly more stores open, Tesla will need to raise vehicle prices by about 3% on average worldwide. In other words, we will only close about half as many stores, but the cost savings are therefore only about half.”
While some of those stores (around 20%) will be evaluated over the next few months, the rest will remain open indefinitely. That doesn’t mean Tesla is overturning its decision to move all sales to online. That’s still the case. Those visiting the showrooms will still be shown how to order the car on their phone.
Tesla says it still offers the 1,000 mile or 7-day guarantee return policy, for those nervous about the online-only sales policy.
Would you rather pay 3% more for your Tesla and check it out in a showroom? Or do you have enough faith to order before you see it up close? Let us know @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
