Tesla now offers Model 3 Performance for less than $50,000 by unbundling features

With the most recent price and option changes, Tesla also made some off-the-menu changes and that includes offering the Model 3 Performance for less than $50,000 by unbundling some features.

When Tesla first launched the Model 3 Performance last year, the vehicle could be ordered for $69,000, but Tesla quickly changed the base price to $64,000 and unbundled some features to offer a $5,000 Performance Upgrades Package:

• 20” Performance Wheels
• Performance Brakes
• Carbon fiber spoiler
• Lowered suspension
• Aluminum alloy pedals
• Increased top speed from 145mph to 155mph (now 162 mph)

Soon after, Tesla started offering this upgrade package for free – resulting in a new net price of $64,000 for the Model 3 Performance.

In 2019, Tesla kept tweaking the price and with the latest changes announced earlier this week, the Model 3 Performance starts at just $54,990.

Furthermore, the automaker also started unbundling what was previously known as the ‘Performance Upgrades Package’ again as an ‘off-the-menu’ item:

On the website, Tesla only talks about replacing the 20″ wheels, which are standard on the Model 3 Performance, with 18″ wheels, but it also includes the other features listed in the ‘Performance Upgrades Package’.

Sources familiar with the matter told Electrek that it reduces the price of the Model 3 Performance to $49,990 – however it’s only on inventory vehicles.

Update: Tesla says that buyers can only get teh 18″ wheels but it’s for the same price as the 20″ wheels off-the-menu.

Tesla recently made a lot of those vehicles available as inventory in North America, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Electrek’s Take

This is an interesting move, especially when you consider the inventory that Tesla ‘dropped’, because the Model 3 Performance without the ‘Performance Upgrades Package’ is really just a regular Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor.

The only things that Tesla claims to be doing differently is a more powerful inverter and validating the rear motor for higher output, but it’s still the same motor.

So you still get that faster acceleration from 0 to 60 mph, but you lose the other performance features, including track mode.

It’s a $2,000 difference to get the acceleration time from 4.4 seconds to 3.2 seconds. I think it might be a good deal for some people.

As for the price with the performance package, that also came down by a lot – again showing that the Model 3 Performance is mainly a gross margin generator for the Model 3 program and Tesla adjusts its price when it needs to sell more of it.