Tesla CEO Elon Musk blames supply chain disruption behind hike in car prices

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has blamed the erratic supply chain globally amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic as the reason behind frequent price rise of its electric vehicles recently.

Musk's reaction came after some of the new Tesla Model Y owners raised the issue of missing lumbar support on the passenger side in their electric SUVs. Replying to one such query on Twitter, Musk let the cat out of the bag and said supply chain pressure is to be blamed for this.

He wrote, "Moving lumbar was removed only in front passenger seat of 3/Y (obv not there in rear seats). Logs showed almost no usage. Not worth cost/mass for everyone when almost never used." He went on to add, "Prices increasing due to major supply chain price pressure industry-wide. Raw materials especially."

Tesla has increased prices of its Model 3 and Model Y electric cars five times in a matter of months. This spate of price hike started in February this year. Since then, price has been increased on these two Tesla electric vehicles every month till date.

Tesla has not been immune to the ongoing global supply chain issues, which include the semi-conductor crisis, amid the pandemic. According to reports, Tesla is forced to hold around 20,000 units of Model 3 and Model Y cars because of a missing part.

Earlier in April, Elon Musk had confirmed that Tesla has gone through chip shortage crisis. He had said that Tesla has faced "some of the most difficult supply chain challenges." However, he had added, "We're mostly out of that particular problem."

The crisis is possible one of the reasons why Tesla has been forced to delay deliveries of Model S Plaid, its longest range electric vehicle with quickest acceleration. Deliveries for the Model S Plaid, which Musk himself compared to spacecraft, were originally scheduled to start from June 4. It has now been pushed back by at least a week.