Tesla starts preparing Model Y rear-wheel-drive deliveries amid drop in demand

Tesla is starting to ask Model Y rear-wheel-drive reservation holders to prepare for deliveries amid a drop in demand.

Last month, Tesla started confirming Model Y deliveries to customers in the US.

The automaker has given some customers delivery windows between March 15 and 30, indicating that deliveries will start during the second half of the month.

Tesla ended up starting deliveries on March 13th.

As it has been the case with Tesla’s other vehicle launches, the automaker has been focusing on a few versions of the vehicle without offering too many different options in order to streamline its early production.

For the Model Y, Tesla has only been delivering the Dual Motor AWD and Performance versions, which are virtually the same in terms of hardware.

Since the launch of the Model Y last year, Tesla has also been taking orders for the Long Range Rear-Wheel-Drive, but this version of the car wasn’t expected until later in 2020.

Now some people who ordered the Model Y Long Range Rear-Wheel-Drive are reporting being asked to give payment and trade-in information for imminent deliveries.

Henryk S shared with Electrek his updated order page for the Model Y RWD:

This version of the Model Y starts for less than $50,000 and Tesla is likely to have a lot more pre-orders for it than for the higher-end AWD and Performance versions.

However, it’s unclear when Tesla plans to deliver these cars since the Fremont factory is reportedly not in operation right now and they are believed to have only made Model Y AWD and Performance vehicles before the shutdown last week.

We’ll share an update when we have some confirmed delivery dates for the vehicle.

Electrek’s Take

As we previously reported, Tesla has been suffering from a notable drop in demand due to the coronavirus crisis and economic downturn.

It is bad timing for the company since it happened right at the start of Model Y deliveries, which was expected to greatly increase sales for Tesla – thanks to an existing large backlog of orders.

However, we are hearing that many people are canceling their orders.

Normally, it takes months for someone who didn’t pre-order a newly launched Tesla vehicle to be able to get their hands on one, but for Model Y, people who place a new AWD and Performance order right now are getting quick delivery times.

It’s possible that we are seeing Tesla move so quickly to Model Y RWD production because they don’t have the demand right now for the two higher-end versions despite starting deliveries only a few weeks ago.

With Fremont being shut down, Tesla is likely working on accumulating more orders to know what cars they need to make once they reopen.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.