Tesla has decided to stop taking new orders for its Model 3 Long Range, one of its most popular models, in the US and Canada. The automaker adopted this new business model to avoid creating overly long delivery timelines for customers. There’s currently a rush to order electric cars as the technology becomes more mainstream and, in the short term, rising gas prices boost popularity and new federal EV incentives are expected to become law at any moment.
As for Tesla, we previously reported that this increase in demand led to a significant increase in its order rate in various regions of the US. In March, this resulted in many Tesla models being sold in the US until 2023. That’s despite several price increases across Tesla’s lineup over the past two years.
In May, Tesla CEO Elon Musk warned that Tesla may stop taking orders for some vehicles due to long delivery times due to large backlogs. The automaker has now followed up on the warning with an update to its online config:
As you can see above, the Model 3 Long Range is now grayed out and cannot be selected to order. Tesla added a note that it will be “available in 2023.”
The screenshot above is from Tesla’s US configurator, but the car isn’t available in Canada either.
The Model 3 Long Range is one of Tesla’s most popular vehicles. Based on Musk’s warning, the automaker probably has enough of a backlog for the model that it doesn’t make sense to take more orders until it works through it.
Tesla has also removed the price of the car for the time being. Before today’s update, the price was $57,990. Prices will likely be updated when Tesla reopens orders.
The Model 3 Long Range may be one of the few electric vehicles that may qualify for the new EV tax credit with batteries and critical minerals criteria, but it must cost less than $55,000 to qualify.
