Tesla has increased the price of the base Model S by another $5,000 – making it a $10,000 base price increase in less than a month.



Since the beginning of the year, we have been covering a seemingly continuous series of price increases throughout Tesla’s vehicle lineup.

However, it has particularly affected Model 3 and Model Y vehicles since Tesla hasn’t been delivering Model S and Model X as the updated versions of the new electric vehicles were delayed.

In June, Tesla finally started deliveries of the new Model S – starting with the new Plaid top performance version, which also saw a $10,000 price increase last month.

A few weeks later, as Tesla started delivering the new base version of the Model S, Model S Long Range, Tesla increased the price of the vehicle by $5,000.

Today, Tesla updated its online configurator and again increased the price by $5,000:

Changes to the tax deductions for people buying EVs are expected to be included. Right now, there is a federal tax credit of $7,500 for consumers buying an EV, but the credit isn’t available if an auto maker has sold more than 200,000 EVs. That cap affects General Motors (ticker: GM) and Tesla (TSLA).

As investors had expected, the budget reconciliation bill removed the 200,000-vehicle cap in what looked like a win for the industry. But it was too soon to celebrate. On Wednesday, the Senate passed an amendment that grants the $7,500 credit only for EVs that cost less than $40,000, and only if the buyer earns less than $100,000 a year.

The muted reaction to potentially bad news is a sign that investors and analysts believe negotiations over the credit are just beginning. And Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer’s amendment is nonbinding. It doesn’t have to be adopted.

BERLIN — Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said Friday that he hopes to start producing cars at its new factory outside Berlin in October.

The U.S. company had originally planned to begin manufacturing its electric cars at the “Gigafactory” in Gruenheide, east of the German capital, in July.

But legal challenges and problems getting official permits have delayed the project.

"We’re looking forward to hopefully getting the approval to make the first cars, maybe in October if we’re fortunate,” Musk said during a visit to the site Friday.

Armin Laschet, the center-right Union bloc's candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor in next month's election, thanked Musk for his investment in Germany.

Laschet suggested German laws should be changed to make it harder for people not directly affected by the factory's construction to file legal complaints against it, German news agency DPA reports. The project has been plagued with legal challenges and red tape.

In the latest controversy surrounding the project, victims of communism in East Germany on Thursday criticized the decision to grant Tesla a subsidy of 8.1 million euros (almost $10 million) from a trust fund managing what's left of the communist regime's fortune.

German media reported that the state of Brandenburg is allocating the funds to pay for infrastructure costs related to the Tesla Gigafactory.

UOKG, an association representing victims of communism in East Germany, said it welcomed the construction of the factory but questioned “why the state government of Brandenburg is helping the third-richest man in the world” with money seized from former regime entities.

The group's chairman, Dieter Dombrowski, said the money could also have gone toward helping build schools, elderly care homes, daycare centers for children or memorials for victims of the communist dictatorship. He noted that Friday marks the 60th anniversary of the day when construction began on the Berlin Wall, where dozens of fleeing East Germans were killed until 1989.

Katharina Slanina of the opposition Left party in Brandenburg state likewise criticized the decision.

“It's not right that multi-billionaire Musk should put the risks and side effects of his project onto the public's shoulders, but keep all the profits for himself," she said. Her party is effectively the successor to East Germany's Socialist Unity Party.

Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

DETROIT — The U.S. government has opened a formal investigation into Tesla's Autopilot partially automated driving system, saying it has trouble detecting parked emergency vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the action Monday in a posting on its website.

The agency says it has identified 11 crashes since 2018 in which Teslas on Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control have hit vehicles with flashing lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board or cones warning of hazards.

The investigation covers the Models Y, X, S and 3 from the 2014 through 2021 model years.

Autopilot has frequently been misused by Tesla drivers, who have been caught driving drunk or even riding in the back seat while a car rolled down a California highway.

The agency has sent investigative teams to 31 crashes involving partially automated driver assist systems since June of 2016. Such systems can keep a vehicle centered in its lane and a safe distance from vehicles in front of it. Of those crashes, 25 involved Tesla Autopilot in which 10 deaths were reported, according to data released by the agency.

Tesla and other manufacturers warn that drivers using the systems must be ready to intervene at all times. Teslas using the system have crashed into semis crossing in front of them, stopped emergency vehicles and a roadway barrier.

A message was left early Monday seeking comment from Tesla, which has disbanded its media relations office.

In June NHTSA ordered all automakers to report any crashes involving fully autonomous vehicles or partially automated driver assist systems.

The measures show the agency has started to take a tougher stance on automated vehicle safety than in the past. It has been reluctant to issue any regulations of the new technology for fear of hampering adoption of the potentially life-saving systems.

New York (CNN Business)Federal safety regulators are investigating at least 11 accidents involving Tesla cars using Autopilot or other self-driving features that crashed into emergency vehicles when coming upon the scene of an earlier crash.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration said seven of these accidents resulted 17 injuries and one death.
All of the Teslas in question had the self-driving Autopilot feature or the traffic-aware cruise control engaged as they approached the crashes, the NHTSA said.Tesla (TSLA) stock fell 5% in morning trading following news of the probe.The accidents under investigation occurred between January 22, 2018, and July 10, 2021, across nine different states. They took place mostly at night, and the post-accident scenes all included control measures like first responder vehicle lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board and road cones.Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the probe.

Gordon Johnson, an analyst and vocal critic of Tesla, wrote in a note to clients Monday that the issue isn't just about Autopilot users — but also other non-Tesla drivers on the road who could be injured by cars using the feature.

"NHTSA is zeroing in on a particular danger that Tesla creates for people outside the vehicle — ie, those who never agreed to be Autopilot 'guinea pigs,'" Johnson wrote. "Thus, to simply say 'Tesla drivers accept Autopilot's risks,' as has been used in the past, does not appear to be a defense here."

Self-driving options such as Tesla's Autopilot or more widely available adaptive cruise control, available on a wide range of automakers' vehicles, do a good job of slowing a vehicle down when the car in front is slowing down, said Sam Abuelsamid, an expert in self-driving vehicles and principal analyst at Guidehouse Insights.

The real problem he said is that many more Tesla owners assume their cars can, in fact, drive themselves than do drivers of other cars with automatic braking and other safety features. And the cues that a driver would see when approaching an accident site, such as road flares or flashing lights, make more sense to a human than they might to an auto drive system.

"When it works, which can be most of the time, it can be very good," said Abuelsamid, about Tesla's Autopilot feature. "But it can easily be confused by things that humans would have no problem with. Machine visions are not as adaptive as humans. And the problem is that all machine systems sometimes make silly errors."

SAN FRANCISCO — Two U.S. senators on Wednesday pressed the Federal Trade Commission to probe Tesla, saying the company has misled consumers and endangered the public by marketing its driving automation systems as fully self-driving.

"Tesla and (CEO) Mr. (Elon) Musk’s repeated overstatements of their vehicle’s capabilities ... put Tesla drivers – and all of the traveling public – at risk of serious injury or death," Senate Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey said in a letter to newly appointed FTC Chair Lina Khan.

"Tesla drivers listen to these claims and believe their vehicles are equipped to drive themselves – with potentially deadly consequences."

The letter, which came after the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration opened a probe into Tesla's Autopilot on Monday, added to pressure on Tesla.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Autopilot is a standard feature for Tesla cars and enables the vehicles to maintain distance from cars in front. Tesla sells its advanced driver assistant features such as lane changing and automated parking under the name Full Self-Driving (FSD) for $1,000, although the system does not make its vehicles fully autonomous.

Musk, who has nearly 60 million Twitter followers, uses the term FSD frequently, generally referring to the Tesla package of features, but many consumers take it to mean fully autonomous driving. Musk has touted how safe the technology is and promised that its vehicles would soon drive themselves, only to miss his own deadlines.

NHTSA said in June that since 2016 it has opened 30 investigations into Tesla crashes in which the agency suspects advanced driver assistance systems were in use.

The NHTSA in 2018 said in a letter to Tesla the company had made "misleading statements" about the safety of its Model 3 and had confused consumers. The agency referred the issue to the FTC to investigate whether Tesla’s statements constituted “unfair or deceptive acts or practices.”

The key difference between Level 3 and Level 4 automation is that Level 4 vehicles can intervene if things go wrong or there is a system failure. In this sense, these cars do not require human interaction in most circumstances. However, a human still has the option to manually override.Level 4 vehicles can operate in self-driving mode. But until legislation and infrastructure evolves, they can only do so within a limited area (usually an urban environment where top speeds reach an average of 30mph). This is known as geofencing. As such, most Level 4 vehicles in existence are geared toward ridesharing.