Tesla reintroduces original leather seats as a slightly cheaper option for the Model S 60

They have been rumoured to make a comeback for a while now, but today it’s official: Tesla reintroduced its original leather seats as a cheaper option and only in the Model S 60.

When we reported on the upcoming ‘Supercharger Credit’ system to reduce entry price of Model S & X, we mentioned that CEO Elon Musk was looking to unbundle options in Tesla vehicles in order to reduce the price.

It looks like this latest move might be in line with this strategy though it doesn’t have much of an impact considering the price difference with the next generation leather seat is minimal: $100.

After some complaints over the level of comfort in its leather seat, Tesla introduced a new generation with greatly improved padding. Here’s a side by side of the first and second generation seats:

Tesla also reportedly brought more of the manufacturing in-house with the second generation seats.

Interestingly, the option is only available for Tesla’s entry-level vehicle: the Model S 60. Any other model only has the next-gen seats for leather options and the difference is only $100, which makes it a hard sale.

The obvious explanation would be that Tesla is left with a few inventory of the first generation seats, but it’s hard to believe considering they were discontinued for a long time.

While Tesla updated its seat options, it is still listing the next generation gray leather seats for delivery in “mid-2017” – something that is frustrating some owners who weren’t aware of the ridiculous wait time for the color at the time of ordering.