This is reported by the popular Electrek resource, leading a kind of chronicle of the Tesla Model 3 life cycle. Increasing the mass production of electric vehicles of this model, the company first gave priority to more expensive configurations, which is understandable from an economic point of view. The $ 35,000 version was nominally present in Tesla’s range of electric vehicles to attract buyers and set a benchmark for competitors.

For the past year and a half, the most affordable Tesla Model 3 Standard Range could be bought for $ 35,000, albeit with some effort and some luck. In April last year, the basic version of the electric car disappeared from the configurator on the Tesla website, the company stopped producing it in its original form, and everyone who wanted to save money began to offer the Standard Range Plus version for $ 38,000, which programmatically limited its range and a number of other functions, but the buyer was offered a $ 3,000 discount as compensation. It was not so easy to place an order for such a modification, but now this possibility should disappear.

As the source explains, the Tesla Model 3 upgrade to the model year 2021 continued the unification of the available trim levels, as a result of which converting the Standard Range Plus versions into software-limited modifications for $ 35,000 will be officially prohibited if the car belongs to the 2021 model year. Electric cars of the current model year with artificial restrictions can still be bought for $ 35,000, but stocks are not large enough to last.

Those who want to save money on buying an electric car of this brand now have a new benchmark – in September, the founder of the company, Elon Musk, promised that in three years Tesla would bring an electric car worth $ 25,000 to the market. The main thing is that its basic configuration is not as elusive. as is the case with the Tesla Model 3.