Tesla walks back its plan to close most showrooms
DETROIT — Tesla is walking back plans to close most of its showrooms worldwide and announced price hikes for most of its electric vehicles.
Tesla announced last month that it would shutter most of its stores to cut costs so it could sell its lower-priced Model 3 for $35,000. The company continues its shift toward online-only sales, but now says it won’t close as many stores as originally thought.
The $35,000 base Model 3 will still be available, but the company is raising prices by 3 percent on all other models.
In a Monday filing with government regulators, Tesla now says it closed 10 percent of its stores, but a few of those will now remain open. Another 20 percent are being evaluated and some could remain open.
The company gave no numbers, but said it would close only about half the stores that it had intended to.
