Tesla has launched a new, cheaper, less powerful Model Y in one of the most expensive car markets globally to help lower the cost of ownership for new owners.
In Singapore, where prices of a new Model Y normally start $A90,800, Tesla has launched a new 110 kW version of the Model Y, helping bring the car into a new low-powered vehicles category and saving annual road tax by $A2,370.
This news was shared on Tesla Singapore’s X page with the company saying: “New Model Y 110 now available (Category A CoE)”.
This new variant keeps the same range of 466 km along with the top speed of 201 km/h but it does see the acceleration time increase significantly from 5.9 to 9.6 seconds on a 0-100 km/h sprint, making it the slowest Tesla ever.
Part of this is due to having just 110 kW of power to comply with the category A requirement in Singapore instead of the regular 255 kW seen on the standard single-motor RWD variant.
Of course, the savings for many owners with the new model over a 5-year ownership period and not paying for more expensive fuel will help many other drivers in the country buy a Tesla EV for the first time.
The standard versions of the Model Y fall under category B and have prices without COE and other taxes of $A90,780 for the RWD and $A102,600 for the dual-motor AWD variants.
This is not the first time that Tesla has released a model specifically for a market.
In March 2024, Tesla launched a two-seater variant of the Model Y in France. This was to help business owners qualify for tax savings and was shared by the company’s account executive Clément Maguet, on Linkedin.
The translated version of that post said: “Tesla has developed a 2-seater Model Y with a storage capacity of 2158 litres and a range of up to 565 km. This model is eligible for commercial vehicle taxation.”
In August 2024, Tesla took away premium features and lowered the entry price of Model 3 in Mexico.
For that variant, which saw a reduction in price of $A4,000, Tesla removed leather seats and replaced them with cloth seats. This also removed the ventilated seats functionality as well as the heated steering wheel found on all new standard Model 3 cars.
