Well, that didn’t take long. Less than a month after radically slashing prices across its lineup, Tesla has begun inching them back up again. The company raised the price of its Model Y SUV by $1,000 over the weekend.
Tesla doesn’t announce price increases. But the company’s website this morning lists the price of the Model Y Long Range at $54,990. A step up, the Model Y Performance, starts at $57,990. Both prices are $1,000 higher than Friday.
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They remain thousands of dollars less expensive than they were at the start of the year.
Probably a Response to IRS Rules
Government policy may be driving the decisions.
Tesla initially cut prices when the IRS published a list that treated many Model Ys as cars, not SUVs, for tax purposes. A revamped law offers a tax rebate of up to $7,500 to many buyers who purchase electric vehicles. But the law has separate price caps for different types of vehicles — $55,000 for cars and $80,000 for SUVs.
Tesla’s price cuts got most Model Ys under the $55,000 line for cars.
But on Friday, the IRS revamped its rules again. The new regulations consider the Model Y and vehicles like it (such as Ford’s Mustang Mach-E) to be SUVs, subject to the $80,000 price cap.
It’s probably no coincidence that Tesla began increasing prices almost immediately.
But the company may not inflate them back to pre-January levels. Anecdotal reports say the price cuts triggered a wave of sales. Tesla may not wish to risk slowing that trend.
As of this moment, only the Model Y has seen such a price bump since last week among Tesla’s vehicles.
