Tesla delays price hike because of ‘unusually high volume’ of last-minute orders - The Verge

Tesla has delayed a planned 3 percent price hike on all of its cars until midnight on Wednesday because it had trouble processing a rush of last-minute orders, the company claimed on Twitter on Tuesday morning.

“Due to unusually high volume, Tesla was unable to process all orders by midnight on Monday, so the slight price rise on vehicles is postponed to midnight Wednesday,” the company wrote.

On February 28th, Tesla announced that it was lowering prices by 6 percent on all models after deciding to close most of its stores and switch to an online-only sales model. The company said it made these changes in order to cut operating costs, which finally allowed Tesla to start taking orders for the $35,000 version of the Model 3 that it had promised since the car’s debut in March 2016.

The decision angered customers around the world who had recently bought cars at a higher price, and it also caused confusion among employees of many of the company’s stores.

Two weeks later, the company reversed course and halted the store closings after “closely evaluating every single Tesla retail location.” The decision to keep many of its locations open while keeping sales online meant the company had to raise prices again, this time by 3 percent (except for the $35,000 Model 3). Tesla CEO Elon Musk has spent the last week occasionally reminding his 25 million Twitter followers that the price hike was coming.

“Reminder to buy our S3XY cars before midnight on Monday! Prices rise slightly worldwide on Tuesday,” he wrote over the weekend.

Last week, Tesla announced the Model Y compact SUV, a bigger version of the Model 3 that will start at $47,000 when it hits the road in 2020. A $39,000 version will be made in 2021. The company is already taking preorders for the new car, and it says the 3 percent price hikes won’t apply to the new vehicle.

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