Tesla has sent emails to customers in Canada with existing orders for a Fremont-made Model Y Long Range, announcing that their order has been canceled, according to Drive Tesla Canada.
As per the source, Tesla says in the email that the ordered configuration isn’t available anymore, although it doesn’t explicitly mention what configuration that is, and as a result their order is being canceled and a refund of the deposit is being issued.
However, the Austin-based EV maker offers Canadian customers the alternative of switching their order to another configuration, including the newly introduced Model Y Long Range built at the firm’s Shanghai Gigafactory in China, which delivers a range of 309 miles (497 kilometers) on a full charge while riding on the standard 19-inch Gemini wheels.
Gallery: Tesla Model Y (MIC)
The Fremont-made Model Y LR has an EPA-estimated range of 330 miles (531 km), so getting a Chinese-made model isn’t much of an upgrade for affected reservation holders considering it carries the same starting price of $69,990 CAD as the US-built model, but as Drive Tesla Canada points out, there are some benefits to getting an imported Tesla.
It appears that the Shanghai-made Model Ys are equipped with a smaller, 79-kilowatt-hour battery pack made by LG (the Fremont-made one has an 82-kWh Panasonic pack) which results in a shorter driving range and slower charging speeds, but on the other hand, it offers better performance in cold weather and degrades slower than the Panasonic-made packs.
In other words, the made-in-China models don’t come with an LFP battery and still rely on 2170-type cells, only from a different supplier.
Reuters first wrote about Tesla’s intentions of exporting Shanghai-made vehicles to North America in November 2022 and later reports indicated that a second shipment was heading towards Canada in May of this year.
In the United States, the $7,500 tax credit can only be applied to vehicles assembled in North America, but Canada’s incentive scheme doesn’t have such limitations.
As always, we’d like to know what you think about this latest development regarding Tesla’s Canadian sales, so head over to the comments section below to give us your thoughts.
