Tesla Cuts Number of Stock Colors to Streamline Production

This Aug. 8, 2018, file photo shows a Tesla emblem on the back end of a Model S in the Tesla showroom in Santa Monica, Calif. Source: AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File

Tesla is dropping two of the seven standard colors it had offered to customers as it tries to streamline production.

In a tweet early Tuesday, CEO Elon Musk said obsidian black and metallic silver will still be available, but at a higher cost.

Tesla fans can still choose as standard colors solid black and "midnight silver metallic," as well as pearl white, deep blue metallic and red.

The company, based in Palo Alto, California, has struggled to vault from a niche maker of expensive electric cars into a mass-market automaker.

There is a waiting list of more than 400,000 people who want to buy a Tesla, and some have been waiting since March 2016, when the company first started taking orders.