Why stopped Tesla the delivery of the LR RWD (in USA & Europe)?

[Sregor]

Does anybody know why Tesla stopped building LR RWD for USA and Europe?

In Europa (at least in the part where the steering wheel is on the left (correct ) side, you now can only choose between SR+, LR AWD and the Performance model. There is a rather huge price difference between the SR+ and LR AWD.

We were planning to order a LR RWD early July. Unfortunately this is not possible anymore. I really liked the range and higher charging speeding at a supercharger of the RWD. I don't want to buy the AWD because it is above our limit we want to spend on a car and we really don't need the extra motor and performance. It even has a slightly shorter range ...
Probably we choose the SR+ instead however we will wait for the time being. Maybe even till 2020 as also more EV choice becomes available .

I can't image that Tesla has a better profit margin on the SR+ than on the LR RWD...

 

[jjrandorin]

In the US, I am fairly certain that the RWD LR tesla is available off menu (meaning you can order it by calling tesla and speaking to a human). Its just not available by clicking on the website. Maybe its the same there?

 

[Sregor]

In the US, I am fairly certain that the RWD LR tesla is available off menu (meaning you can order it by calling tesla and speaking to a human). Its just not available by clicking on the website. Maybe its the same there?

Nope RWD was always an off menu option in Europe. But now you can't even order it anymore off menu.

 

[jjrandorin]

Then, all we can do is speculate / guess here, and my guess would be "money". There is a bigger differentiator between SR+ and AWD LR.

Same reason they canceled / made limited quantities of the Mid range model. THAT was the best deal tesla had, in my opinion. Full premium interior etc, and only less range.. but more than the SR.

 

[srs5694]

The last I heard, @jjrandorin was correct; the LR RWD model was still available "off-menu" in the US. I have no idea if that's true in Europe, too. It's worth double-checking this.

As to the "why" question, it seems to be a cost-cutting measure. The AWD and performance versions are higher-margin vehicles than the LR RWD, so discouraging sales of the LR RWD in favor of the higher-margin vehicles improves Tesla's bottom line. Likewise for the SR and the SR+, especially now that they have identical hardware, and so cost exactly the same to produce. Tesla no doubt feels obligated to keep the SR available because they promised a $35,000 car, and even after bumping up the price a bit, it's useful to be able to claim to have a car at close to that price; but they'd obviously prefer to collect more money for it and call it an SR+.

 

[TimothyHW3]

Nope RWD was always an off menu option in Europe. But now you can't even order it anymore off menu.

Which country are we talking about? I have a friend who transferred his AWD into RWD two days ago. Did you cross check it with all of the stores in your country and with Amsterdam, the HQ? A lot of these guys have no idea what they are talking about. You also have a ton of inventory of RWD in Europe.

 

[OCR1]

We are seeing conflicting information as to whether Tesla will process a new order for a LR RWD model. It’s been “off menu” for a month or so but still available but in the last few days a few people have posted that Tesla has refused to place any new orders at this point. However I would not assume this to be correct as there are so many Tesla reps that don’t know what they are talking about.

We will need to wait a bit longer to see if Tesla has officially retired this model. Usually Elon will send a tweet out letting everyone know and giving them a week to place any orders before officially ending the production run.

 

[azred]

Obviously these decisions are based on what the company believes helps the bottom line though we might not like it. For example, Model S and X sales have been hammered and elimination of a 75 battery option/lower price car clearly hurts sales of both models. Yet Tesla must believe it was a smart bottom line move or else a smaller battery option would have returned by now.

I have a 2016 S60 software upgraded to a 75 and a low VIN LR RWD 3. I think those configurations were great for those of us wanting Teslas without totally breaking the bank, but it doesn’t shock me that Tesla would seek higher margin configurations.

 

[Moose Cadets]

We are seeing conflicting information as to whether Tesla will process a new order for a LR RWD model. It’s been “off menu” for a month or so but still available but in the last few days a few people have posted that Tesla has refused to place any new orders at this point. However I would not assume this to be correct as there are so many Tesla reps that don’t know what they are talking about.

We will need to wait a bit longer to see if Tesla has officially retired this model. Usually Elon will send a tweet out letting everyone know and giving them a week to place any orders before officially ending the production run.

Yes I was one of the people who's advisers said that they've officially stopped taking orders in US for LR RWD. I think you can maybe still switch orders to LR RWD, but it'll be most likely with someone who wasn't aware and you'll probably have to change configurations later.

It seems with this, they are for sure not sending any over to Europe from then on and sent that email to confirm.

 

[sixela]

In the US, I am fairly certain that the RWD LR tesla is available off menu (meaning you can order it by calling tesla and speaking to a human). Its just not available by clicking on the website. Maybe its the same there?

That seems to have changed between the 5th and 12th of June.

In Europe the cutoff was clear -- on the 12th. Before you could order RWD LR, after that you couldn't.

My guess is that they're reserving the RWD LR for the Chinese market for the moment -- they want to focus that model in that market to avoid "Osborning" themselves while the Chinese SR+ customers wait for the Shangai factory to produce SR+ that aren't subject to import duties.

Of course that doesn't mean RWD will be gone forever. Remember October 2018? We all buried RWD there and then, when it was announced that it would be available off-menu "for another week". If you can build SR+ and P- (aka Stealth P) then, you can build RWD again on short notice. If, to give one example, they ever have a shortage of front motors and aren't constrained on battery cells you can bet RWD LR will rise from the grave (or rather, return from its Chinese holiday).