Tesla Temporarily Cuts Certain Model Y Prices

Tesla has temporarily reduced the price of certain Model Y variants by $1,000 until February 29, according to a pricing notice on its website.

The decrease is for the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer's rear-wheel-drive and Long Range all-wheel-drive Model Ys, which are priced at $42,990 and $47,990, respectively. Prices will rise by $1,000 or more on March 1, Tesla says.

The price of the Model Y Performance variant remains unchanged at $52,490.

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The website also notes that buyers of new 2024 Model Ys qualify for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit, which is applied to the purchase price at the time of delivery.

However, as Kiplinger recently reported, stricter rules became effective this year on EV tax credit eligibility. For example, while the Model Y Performance vehicle is still eligible for a tax credit this year, some versions of the Model 3 containing Chinese-made batteries are not.

The Model Y temporary discount comes nearly two months after Tesla recalled more than 2 million vehicles over issues related to its Basic Autopilot package that could increase the risk of a collision. The recall affects vehicles in the 2012 to 2023 model years that are equipped with the Autosteer feature, according to a National Highway Traffice Safety Administration (NHTSA) report.

“In certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, the prominence and scope of the feature’s controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse,” the NHTSA said in the report.

Two 'Boycott Tesla' Super Bowl ads air

Concerns about the safety of Tesla's self-driving technology are behind a pair of ads that ran during Sunday’s Super Bowl that called for a boycott of the carmaker.

The Dawn Project, which produced the commercials, claims on its website that Tesla CEO Elon Musk “sells defective self-driving software by telling consumers it is many times safer than a human driver, when in fact it drives like a drunk teenager. He “refuses to disable autopilot on roads where he knows it isn’t safe.” 

The Dawn Project site also claims that Tesla’s “self-driving experiments” have resulted in more than 1,000 crashes and at least 33 deaths.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

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