Oliver Haslam on June 1, 2021, 8:16 pm

Elon Musk Says Tesla’s Price Increase Is Due To Increasing Supply Chain And Material Costs

As anyone who has been watching Tesla will know, the company often plays fast and loose with its pricing structure, often within the same lineup and even for the exact same vehicle.

Tesla has become the poster child for strange pricing decisions, often with cars getting more costly in surprisingly small increments. Now, we know why.

Musk took to Twitter as he is wont to do, replying to one tweet by saying that the company increases the prices of cars based on the prices it has to pay to get hold of the parts needed to build them. Price volatility in terms of parts means price volatility in terms of shipping cars, too.

As one example shared by Electrek, the Model Y Long Range AWD car went from a price of $50,000 to $52,000. There was little explanation why that happened at the time. But now we know what’s going on.

“Prices increasing due to major supply chain price pressure industry-wide. Raw materials especially.”

So there we go. While some other companies might absorb the price increases associated with the components that go into cars, Tesla isn’t going to do that. You, the customer, will have to pay up instead.

Profit margins before customers, it seems.