Tesla is now selling its stripped-down, “more affordable” vehicle, the Model Y Standard, in Europe, just three days after releasing it in the US. Its US release was widely panned as the massive number of missing features outweighed the relatively small price cut. But the new European release has fewer cut features and a larger price differential, making the calculus much different in a territory where Tesla sales have fallen rapidly.
Tesla first started teasing us about “more affordable” models years ago, planning to release a $25k car which came to be popularly known as the “Model 2.”
But that project was abruptly canceled by Tesla CEO Elon Musk as first reported by Reuters and immediately denied by Musk. Reuters was later shown to be correct in its report.
That didn’t stop Tesla from claiming that more affordable models were coming. In its quarterly reports, it stated repeatedly that it was working on more affordable models (yes, plural), yet nobody had seen hide nor hair of them. Eventually, it turned out that those would just be a stripped-down version of the Model Y.
After another typically-Tesla missed deadline, we finally got to see the results of the stripping-down process, and Tesla released a new “Standard” trim of the Model Y in the US on Tuesday. It also released a somewhat less stripped-down version of the Model 3, which was a bit of a pleasant surprise, as that model is both cheaper and missing fewer features than the Model Y Standard.
At first, those new trims were only available in the US, but we knew they’d come to Europe sooner or later, given a statement from Tesla’s German arm. And now, it’s here.
Tesla’s Model Y Standard is a better deal in EU, but Model 3 is missing
The Model Y Standard is now available throughout Europe as of today, at least in left-hand drive countries.
Unlike the US, the price cut is more significant there. Though we were expecting a price cut of “about 10%” per Tesla Germany’s comments earlier this week, the price cut is actually more like 20% when compared to the “Premium” trim – with the Standard trim starting at €40k and the Premium trim starting at €50k (though prices and incentives will differ country by country). Europe did previously have a standard RWD Model Y with a smaller battery (for around 45k), but the other cut content brought the price down even further now.
While the €40k price is higher than the US $40k price due to VAT inclusion, the price differential between Premium and Standard trims is much more significant. $5k didn’t feel like a big difference for the huge amount of missing features, but €10k seems like a more reasonable price cut.
You’re still missing a lot of features with the Standard trim in the EU: no rear screen, fewer speakers, smaller wheels (imo, this is actually a plus), smaller battery, slower acceleration, no ambient lights, textile seats (another plus), no seat ventilation or second-row seat heating, worse suspension, less sound dampened glass, and a covered-up glass roof which has puzzled many as to why Tesla didn’t just put a metal roof there or just leaf the glass roof uncovered.
But you’re actually missing fewer features than on the US Standard trim. Two controversial removals were the lack of power-folding side mirrors, making the base Teslas the only new vehicles available in the US without this feature; and the removal of Autosteer, Tesla’s lane-centering feature from basic Autopilot which has become a standard feature on most vehicles and which made it the only Tesla that doesn’t have this feature.
The European Standard trim actually has both of those features still. So, not only is the price differential higher at €10k, but you get to keep Autosteer and power-folding mirrors.
That said, it seems that the EU Standard trim’s battery is slightly smaller – while the US Standard has about 10% less range than the US Premium model, the EU Standard loses about 15% of its range, going from 622km to 534km on the WLTP standard. It retains quick Supercharging ability though (with very slightly slower charging speed due to the smaller battery), so the range difference really shouldn’t matter too much in practical terms.
Colors are also slightly different – while the US Standard trim comes by default in Stealth Grey, with Pearl White as a $1k option and Diamond Black for $1.5k, the European version comes with Pearl White as the “free” color, with Diamond Black or Stealth Grey for €1.3k each.
However, one thing missing is the Model 3 – there is no “Standard” Model 3 trim in Europe yet. In the US, the Model 3 Standard seems the better deal than the Model Y, because not only is it cheaper (at a $5.5k price cut), but it also removes fewer features (like the panoramic glass roof, which is retained on the Standard 3 but covered up on the Standard Y).
Model 3 instead maintains its previous trim levels – starting with the Model 3 Rear Wheel Drive at €40k – the same base price as the new Model Y Standard. So, you can move up to a bigger car for the same price (boo, small cars are better, hold the line Europe, you can do it!), but you miss out on several features due to the stripped-down nature of the Y’s Standard trim.
A Standard Model 3 is expected to come to Europe eventually, though may be produced in Tesla’s Chinese factories, as Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory only produces the Model Y.
Why a better deal? Tesla’s EU sales are tanking
Another thing that made the US Standard trim seem like a worse deal is the fact that, just a week ago, Teslas were available for a cheaper price than they are today.
At the beginning of October, US Teslas got an effective price hike of $7,500 when the federal US EV tax credit was taken away by republicans. Incidentally, Tesla CEO Elon Musk spent $288 million in political bribes to help make that happen, thus increasing the price of his company’s vehicles, and in fact making the “more affordable” Model Y actually less affordable than it was just one week prior.
This same change in incentives didn’t happen in Europe, so buyers won’t feel like they missed out on a better deal the week prior, which should work to boost sales more there than in the US.
And that’s important in the EU right now, where Tesla sales are tanking.
In many territories, Tesla has seen sales declines of up to half, which is made all the more drastic when you consider the rapidly expanding EV market in Europe. The most recent data shows that EU-wide, Tesla sales were down 22% in August compared to a year prior, even though EV sales went up 30% in that same time period. The story has been the same most of this year.
Tesla’s sales problem is due to Musk
Much of the reason for this decline is due to Musk’s aforementioned political activities. The US is currently making enemies of its allies, and actively harming its ability to export products and overseas perception of its brands as a violent fascist who is Constitutionally barred from holding office squats in the White House and does his best to harm American interests.
Musk has connected himself to that mission, not just through his political bribes, but through an advisory position he took which saw him recommending cuts to several crucial US government programs. Among these was USAID, a highly efficient overseas aid program, cuts to which have likely already led to millions of deaths worldwide and harmed the global soft power the US has held prominently for decades.
Despite a high-profile breakup in June, Musk continues to rhetorically support the group harming American interests and the American EV industry, which has driven protests against the company, embarrassed owners and ruined Tesla brand perception.
This is harming Tesla at home, but also harming Tesla overseas, as Musk’s political activities haven’t been confined to the borders of the US.
Musk has shown support for German neo-Nazis and agreed with a defense of Hitler’s actions in the Holocaust, paid the legal bills of a racist felon in the UK, and spread disinformation about climate change. This has led to some European companies refusing to buy Tesla products and national protests against allowing Tesla to do business.
It’s not just politics, it’s also lack of innovation
But it’s not just Musk’s distastefulness that is harming Tesla, it’s also his poor leadership on product innovation. Tesla has only released one new model in the last 5 years, the Cybertruck, and that’s not available in Europe. While the Model 3 and Model Y have gotten significant refreshes since then, Tesla’s model line has started to look rather stale, especially compared to the competition – which is also stronger in Europe than in the US.
Europe has had access to more EV models from Western manufacturers than the US has, but it also has access to new, high-tech, low-cost Chinese models. These models have become quite popular in Europe despite tariffs, and while they still represent a relatively small level of market share, that market share is growing fast – while Tesla’s market share drops.
The company, long dominant, has now been eclipsed by European EV makers in market share, and sales aren’t going in the right direction for Tesla.
This new Standard Model Y may help to forestall these attacks on Tesla’s market share position, but even despite it still making better EVs than most of the competition, without innovation, Tesla’s car business will start to look stale.
And that innovation may not be coming, as Musk seems to have all his focus on getting Tesla to shill for his absurd proposed $1 Trillion compensation package by pretending the company will sell $25 trillion worth of humanoid robots and be the only autonomy game in town instead of selling cars, which has been responsible for virtually all of its actual revenue to date. (and, of course, he splits that focus with spreading white supremacy on the platform he is so addicted to he wasted $44 billion to buy it).
Nevertheless, the new Standard Model Y should provide a much-needed boost in the interim for Tesla’s EU sales, particularly given that it is a significantly better deal than the US Standard trim. We’ll have to see if that boost is enough to reverse Tesla’s European sales decline, or merely forestall the decline as competition heats up.
If you’re one of the ones who can look past its bad CEO (I’m not), feel free to use our Tesla referral code for 1,000km of free Supercharging.
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