Tesla Model 3 gets another Kiwi price increase

After having its prices increased twice in March Tesla has rolled out another price hike for the Model 3, New Zealand’s most popular new electric vehicle.

The price jump is admittedly more mild than those confirmed in March. This time around it only concerns the Model 3’s entry level grade, which has had its price increased from $72,400 to $73,200, or $800.

The Model 3 Long Range and Performance models have unchanged prices, rated at $86,900 and $100,900, respectively.

The tweak means that Tesla has increased the entry level Model 3’s pricing by almost $6000 over the last 12 months. The popular plug-in was priced at $66,990 last July.

It’s unknown exactly where the price increase comes from, but it’s likely to stem from recent increases in the price of lithium worldwide.

As reported last week, lithium prices have increased by 500% over the last 12 months. A report from Bloomberg noted that the prices of electric vehicles could be set to increase by US$1000 on average.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has credited previous Model 3 price increases to rising costs caused by inflation and COVID-19 measures.

“Tesla might actually have to get into the mining and refining directly at scale, unless costs improve,” Musk said over Twitter last month.

“There is no shortage of the element itself, as lithium is almost everywhere on Earth, but pace of extraction/refinement is slow.”