If you’ve been aiming to pull the trigger on a new Tesla Model 3 Long Range sedan you’ll have to wait a little longer. The electric car company has removed that configuration from its website due to a huge backlog of orders. Consumers will have to settle for the rear-wheel drive Model 3 or the Performance variant if they want one this year.
Consumers who go to Tesla’s website will find that the Long Range version of the Model 3 is now greyed out and simply says that it’ll be “Available in 2023.” Previously, the website showed an estimated delivery window of November 2022 through January of 2023. The other two models continue to show delivery windows spanning from October to December.
CEO Elon Musk has many times stated that production, not demand, is the biggest challenge facing the Tesla team. On August 12th, he clarified why this specific step was taken with regard to closing orders for the 2022 Model 3 Long Range. “Waitlist too long. Will enable again as we ramp production,” Musk said in reply to a question on Twitter.
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Waitlist is too long. Will enable again as we ramp production.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2022
Interestingly enough, the Model Y Long Range, which is built on the same general platform as the Model 3 Long Range, continues to be available with a delivery window of January 2023 through April 2023. Just like with the Model 3, the Performance variant has a much quicker delivery time window of September 2022 through October 2022.
While lots of automakers are doing everything they can to catch up to Tesla, it seems as though the Texas-based company isn’t slowing down. It delivered more than a quarter of a million cars in the second quarter and the vast majority of those cars were the Model 3 and the Model Y.
Tesla also believes that it’ll be able to ramp up production to a 2 million unit per year pace by the end of 2022. That puts it years ahead of the hopeful goals set by many legacy auto brands from around the world. Now we just have to wait and see if it can accomplish that goal and what if any change to the price of the Model 3 Long Range is when it comes back in 2023.