Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that the electric carmaker will raise the US price of its advanced driver assistant software dubbed “Full Self Driving” to $12,000 (roughly Rs. 8.9 lakh) on January 17.
The 20 percent price rise comes less than two years since Tesla raised Full Self-Driving (FSD) prices to $10,000 (roughly Rs. 7.42 lakh) from $8,000 (roughly Rs. 5.93 lakh) in 2020.
“Tesla FSD price rising to $12k on January 17. Just in the US.” Musk tweeted.
Tesla has been expanding the release of a test version of its upgraded FSD software, a system of driving-assistance features — like automatically changing lanes and making turns, but the features do not make the vehicles autonomous.
A record 190,727 new battery-electric cars were registered in the U.K. last year, according to figures released on Thursday, with Tesla’s Model 3 the best-selling battery-electric model.
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The vehicle was the second most popular new car overall, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, behind the Vauxhall Corsa.
The Model 3 is an all-electric sedan. In the U.K., Tesla lists its cash price as starting at £44,490 (around $60,202). The price of a five-door, gasoline version of the Corsa starts at £17,380, according to Vauxhall.
In a release Thursday, the SMMT described 2021 as the “most successful year in history for electric vehicle uptake.” It said that more new battery-electric vehicles had been registered in 2021 than over the five previous years combined.
The last 12 months also saw 114,554 new plug-in hybrid cars take to Britain’s roads, while 147,246 hybrid electric cars were also registered. Plug-in hybrid vehicles can be filled with gas in the normal way and also plugged in to charge. Hybrid electric cars do not have the option of plug-in charging.
While the figures for electric vehicles look promising, the overall market is challenging
The SMMT said new car registrations amounted to a little under 1.65 million in 2021, which represents a year-on-year increase of only 1%. “The figures underline the ongoing impact of Covid and the semiconductor shortage on the industry,” it said.
Commenting on the figures, the SMMT’s chief executive, Mike Hawes, said it had been “another desperately disappointing year for the car industry,” adding that Covid continued to “cast a pall over any recovery.”
“Manufacturers continue to battle myriad challenges, with tougher trading arrangements, accelerating technology shifts and, above all, the global semiconductor shortage which is decimating supply,” he said.
The increase in electric car uptake was “the undeniable bright spot,” Hawes said, before going on to emphasize the importance of both infrastructure and cost.
Reuters with additional input by GVS