Tesla quietly deleted the standard range Model S option from its website

Graham Rapier

Mar 22, 2019, 19:27 IST

Tesla quietly deleted the standard range Model S option from its website

REUTERS/Noah Berger

Tesla has removed the standard range Model S from its website.
The company cut prices on the Model S and X this month before raising them again.

Tesla has quietly removed the standard range option of a Model S vehicle from its online ordering portal.

Previously, the standard range battery sold for $79,000 as recently as Thursday. Now, the cheapest option, the long range model, begins at $89,500 before incentives like tax rebates and gas savings.

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A Tesla spokesperson said the move was to simplify the company's product lineup.

Prices of both the Model S and Model X increased by about 3% this week in a delayed move that partially counteracted a 6% price cut on March 1. Those pricing changes followed the company's decision to close most of its retail stores, a plan which it also backpedaled on when it said it would keep more stores open than originally expected.

As the first quarter comes to a close at the end of March, Tesla is once again in an all-hands-on-deck push to deliver finished cars to customers. Vice president Sanjay Shah told employees earlier this week that the company needed to deliver 30,000 cars over the last 15 days of the quarter to meet internal targets. CEO Elon Musk doubled-down on the important of deliveries Thursday afternoon, telling employees that everyone's primary focus should be deliveries.