Tesla Model 3 Mid Range Fades From View

First, it faded from the automaker’s ordering page — a disappearance noted on Sunday. Introduced last October as a cheaper stepping stone to the Model 3 lifestyle (and a sort-of apology for the then-undelivered $35,000 Standard Range), Tesla’s Mid Range variant offered 260 miles of driving range, compared to the 310 miles available to Model 3 Long Range drivers.

With the Standard Range now available to order, the Mid Range apparently serves no purpose in the Tesla stable.

Available only with black paint in base trim, the $35,000 Standard Range’s delivery date was recently pushed back from two to four weeks to perhaps eight. For those who longed for the model since the Model 3’s debut three years ago, what’s another few weeks of waiting?

Anyway, the Standard Range version offers a 220-mile driving radius, and the addition of a Standard Range Plus (240 miles) for an extra $2,000 makes the Mid Range model redundant. There’s some debate as to whether the cheapest Tesla is, in fact, profitable. Certainly, there was a clear financial reason for the lengthy delay in getting the model to consumers, not to mention the earlier release of a much pricier performance version of the dual motor model.

The quiet execution of the Model 3 Mid Range comes on the heels of last week’s strangely unenthusiastic launch of the Model Y — a Model 3-based compact crossover designed to mine customers in the juicy $40-$50k SUV segment. That model arrives late next year in two flavors: a Standard Range model with 230 miles of driving range, stickering for $39,000 (before destination), and a $47,000 Long Range model with 300 miles of driving distance packed into its battery.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said buyers of the cheaper version should expect their vehicles “sometime in 2021.”

Due to an abortive attempt to shutter its retail stores, Tesla plans to raise the recently dropped prices of all vehicles — sans Model 3 Standard Range — later this week by an average of 3 percent.

[Image: Tesla]