Elon Musk announces in tweet that premium Tesla model has been canceled
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Tesla is pulling the plug on the most expensive version of its flagship sedan, the Model S Plaid Plus, CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter.
The company had previously announced plans to sell the premium car — which was advertised as being able to go more than 520 miles on a fully charged battery — for almost $150,000, $30,000 more than the standard “Plaid” version.
Tesla still plans a “Plaid” version of the Model S, which is advertised as being able to go 390 miles per charge.
Both versions of the car were expected to have three motors, more than the two in earlier versions of the car, and both were expected to be able to accelerate from 0 to 60 in about 2 seconds.
“Plaid+ is canceled. No need, as Plaid is just so good,” Musk tweeted Sunday. “0 to 60mph in under 2 secs. Quickest production car ever made of any kind. Has to be felt to be believed.”
The unusual “Plaid” name is reportedly a reference to the 1987 Star Wars parody “Spaceballs.”
When spacecrafts enter hyperspace in “Star Wars,” the stars transform into streaks of light — whereas in “Spaceballs,” the spacecrafts go so fast that the stars turn plaid.
The announcement comes just days before a planed June 10 “delivery” ceremony for the Model S Plaid. That ceremony was originally supposed to take place on June 3, but was delayed a week.
While the delay of the event and the sudden cancellation of the higher-end model were not attributed to supply issues, the moves come as the entire automaker industry, and other parts of the economy, suffer from a global microchip shortage.
At the end of May, Musk said that recent price increases were “due to major supply chain price pressure industry-wide. Raw materials especially.”
“Our biggest challenge is supply chain, especially microcontroller chips. Never seen anything like it,” he added in another tweet last week.
“Fear of running out is causing every company to overorder – like the toilet paper shortage, but at epic scale. That said, it’s obv not a long-term issue.”
Shares of Tesla were down more than 1 percent in midday trading Monday.
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