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It seems they realized that the original plan to offer a less premium interior and remove some other content from the car was not the most efficient way to arrive at a $35k product. It is likely the case that the car was not going to be profitable when built that way, so they canned the entire thing and decided to "give away" the now-$39.5K Standard Plus model at that price to people who absolutely insist on it.
And when they had to back away from their radical cost-cutting plan to close almost every retail location and cut a huge slice of the workforce because it became a PR disaster (even for Tesla) threatening to alienate the same group of folks that had previously been lapping up everything the company fed to them, that was the nail in the coffin.
Even at the time they announced the Standard Range model in February, it was clear they were not excited about finally making good on the promise. The presence of the Standard Plus model at only a slightly higher price combined with the ongoing delays in production of the Standard model made it clear they were dragging their feet and trying to upsell people. If their claims of a 6:1 ratio of Standard Plus to Standard are to be believed, that strategy seems to have worked.
Either way, you can indeed get the car for $35K now and since it does not feature any unique parts as compared to products already available, it should be shipping soon. We’ll see. Along with the rest of the software-locked limitations, it doesn’t come with Autopilot, but that’s just fine for people who still like to drive themselves. The fact that they are taking such drastic measures to keep it a secret and try to convince us not to buy it makes it a bit more desirable to me. You are essentially buying below cost. And the fact that you can upgrade it later is icing on the cake.
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