Elon Musk Blames Tesla Price Hikes on 'Supply Chain Pressure'

Tesla CEO Elon Musk defended the company’s rising car prices, pointing to “major supply chain price pressure industry-wide.”

Musk said in a tweet that the company was hiking up its prices due to the increased scarcity of “raw materials.”

Moving lumbar was removed only in front passenger seat of 3/Y (obv not there in rear seats). Logs showed almost no usage. Not worth cost/mass for everyone when almost never used.

Prices increasing due to major supply chain price pressure industry-wide. Raw materials especially.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 31, 2021

Musk’s tweet comes after the automaker quietly raised the prices of its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles — the fifth incremental price rise in just a few months, Electrek reported. From February, the Model 3 Standard Range Plus, the cheapest vehicle, saw an 8 percent price rise to $40,000 USD, according to the outlet.

The Long Range AWD saw a significant rise of $2,500 USD from March, and currently costs $48,990 USD. The Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD went from $51,490 USD to $51,990 USD, Electrek said, while the Tesla Model Y Performance stayed the same at $60,990 USD.

Musk said during a Q1 earnings call in April that the company had experienced “some of the most difficult supply chain challenges,” hinting at production issues.

“[Tesla] had some of the most difficult supply chain challenges that we have ever experienced in the life of Tesla and same difficulties with the supply chain, with parts — over the whole range of parts,” he said. “Obviously, people have heard about the chip shortage. This is a huge problem. But then in addition to that, for example, we had quite a difficulty scaling, driving our production in China, because we are unable to get critical engineers there because of COVID quarantine restrictions.”

In other news, nearly 6,000 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles have been recalled due to concern over possible loose brake parts.