There’s nothing from the government saying the SR ain’t allowed to be upgraded. It’s to make the majority go for the SR+.
Yes there is. Some language about they can pull a mfg from the program if they don't adhere to the rules or something like that. It's been discussed extensively in earlier threads....
Think about it logically. Normal SR was ~47k and did not allow any model 3 to qualify when the program started. Then tesla makes SR- which is literally the same car, and this happened weeks after the program started.
If they were allowed to offer an upgrade to SR standard for 2-3k (original MSRP) that would be one giant loophole allowing the model 3 to qualify and the government would have a PR nightmare about how tesla 'millionares' were cheating the system to take taxpayer dollars.
Don't you think they would accept the extra revenue if they could?
the government ain't that dumb. As it is, the way tesla qualified the SR+ by making the SR- is a bit shady. Doubt they will press their luck at losing eligibility and tanking SR+ sales....now after the program ends? Maybe...
Best case scenario, they offer an upgrade to SR+ which would have to cost more than the original delta between SR- and SR+ or else every SR+ owner would have overpaid...
Edit: Here's another way to think about it: why can't tesla sell the SR normal for 47k still and have that qualify like the SR- and SR+? That would be the same effect as offering the upgrade...literally no one would buy the SR- in that case. But they removed SR normal completely, and anyone who had a normal SR on order (and had not accepted delivery) were told they had to either take an SR- or upgrade to SR+. I definitely recall seeing some posts about that....