Tesla Model S Plaid price increases by $10,000 hours before first deliveries

After canceling the Plaid+, there’s more bad news on the Model S front. The Plaid version, which now assumes the role of the flagship version, has been subjected to a $10,000 price hike. Yes, this is happening literally hours before the first customer deliveries taking place during a dedicated event at the Fremont factory in California.

The most affordable Model S Plaid money can buy now starts off at $129,990 before any applicable EV-related incentives. It goes without saying early adopters who are going to receive their high-performance electric sedans in the coming hours are not impacted by the $10,000 premium since they’ll be paying the original sticker. Nevertheless, the timing is a bit weird, but this is Tesla, so perhaps it’s not that strange after all.

Placing a new order today for the Plaid means you’ll be getting the car later this month, which can only mean Tesla doesn’t have a large backlog of orders it needs to clear first. Interestingly, the base Long Range version (priced from $79,990) is in higher demand as the estimated delivery time mentioned on the website is at any time in September or October.

Unsurprisingly, the Plaid+, which retailed for a hefty $149,990 before Tesla pulled the plug, has vanished from the configurator. Some will remember the Plaid+ was originally announced earlier this year with a starting price of $139,990 before it received a $10,000 price hike. In other words, the non-Plus Plaid available today is only $10,000 cheaper than the defunct Plaid+ prior to its price hike.

Tesla has yet to deliver a single car of the Model S Refresh, which was unveiled at the end of January together with the Model X Refresh. The rollout is kicking off today at 7 PM Pacific Time (10 PM Eastern Time) during an event that will be livestreamed.

As a final note, the configurator also reveals a less substantial $500 price increase for the Model Y Long Range, now beginning at $52,490.

Source: Tesla