Why Are New Tesla Model X Orders Getting Priority Over Older Orders?

Last year, Tesla Inc TSLA refreshed its Model S and X vehicles, upgrading the interior and exterior with better looks, styling, infotainment and efficiency.

Despite supply chain issues that delayed initial deliveries, Model S is now more easily available. For the Model X, while some owners have been waiting for more than a year for their refresh order, newer deliveries seem to be taking priority.

On the Tesla Motors Club forum, there are well over 1,000 pages of Model X reservation holders comparing notes about their orders, trying to figure out why their January or February 2021 Model X order is still waiting to be fulfilled. Some are adding the $12,000 Full Self Driving (FSD) option in hopes that Tesla will deliver their vehicles sooner.

In 2021, Tesla raised Model S and X prices throughout the year, so these earlier orders, if fulfilled, will be accepting a vehicle that's up to $10,000 cheaper to purchase than the price listed on Tesla's website. And while Tesla has maintained the original order price in customers' accounts, it is unclear if Tesla is now incentivized to deliver newer orders sooner, as each delivery would be worth more money to Tesla.

In the forum, deliveries overall are slow, but the deliveries trickling through appear to be the higher-margin Model X Plaid as opposed to the Long Range variant. While it is a normal practice for Tesla to deliver more expensive vehicles first, some in the forum are frustrated that these Model X Plaid orders appear to be as little as two months from order to delivery, compared to up to 14 months some Long Range Model X order holders have been waiting. 

We dropped the ball badly regarding new Model X production ramp & still haven’t fully recovered. Was idiotic to stop production of old X in Dec 2020 when there was still plenty of demand!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 9, 2022

CEO Elon Musk did say Tesla "dropped the ball badly," when it came to the Model X production ramp, citing the limiting factor was interior trim. But this answer did not leave those waiting so long for the vehicles with much comfort. 

Photo: Model X courtesy Tesla Inc.