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Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

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Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#61

Post by awill »

brianwawok wrote: post #3

Makes sense. Model Y is picking up steam. I doubt they are selling 100% production of the other models (Y is eating a bit into sales of all 3). S and X are both in need of a refresh, they have worse battery tech than both the 3 and Y and missing some of the cool Y features (heat pump, octovalve). Current wait is 8-12 weeks on a Y, and only a week or two on the rest. In line for my first Tesla (a y). It has been a ver…

The Model S came out in 2012. Surely it's time for a full redesign, or at least a refresh with their existing battery tech etc..

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#62

Post by cptskippy »

varjag wrote: post #56
oblio wrote: post #50

In Europe the based model 3 is still €47k. So about $50k. And that's the starting price :( That's an almost 33% higher price than the US version.

VAT accounts for the bulk of the difference here.

Would VAT apply to cars coming out of their German Gigafactory?

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#63

Post by 3pt14159 »

anthony_r wrote: post #45
natch wrote: post #8

This has always been their stated plan, to pass on cost savings to customers as they get more efficient and profitable. They did some similar cuts last year. Nice to see it continuing.

If this is the stated plan then I really do not understand why the stock behaves like this was the next Apple (i.e., a company with massive margins).

Because Tesla makes the best electric cars and as they reach economies of scale total cost of ownership will dominate fossil fuel cars. They need to lower prices now because Teslas are still relatively expensive compared to, say, a Toyota; but in the long run they won't need to lower prices further than a certain point. Plus Musk sees angles that few others do and a platform of mobile sensors operating around the planet is inherently comercializable.

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#64

Post by bcrosby95 »

jm4 wrote: post #60
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The kinds of routine maintenance and repair items you typically don’t want to take your car to a dealer for aren’t much of a thing on a Tesla. They're still cars. Give it 10yr and you'll still need all the same suspension and steering related service that every other car needs. Nobody wants to pay a dealer to do something trivial like CV boots or wheel bearings.

True, but I won’t own the car in 10 years so I don’t care. I’m not discounting your point or anyone else’s on merit. What I’m getting at is that it’s a minority position and most people don’t care. How many 10 year old cars do you see out on the road? Yeah, they’re out there, but most of them are a lot newer than that. Most buyers just don’t keep a car long enough for any of this to matter and the ones that do care h…

> Yeah, they’re out there, but most of them are a lot newer than that.

What do you think happens to a car when you're done with it? In the USA, the average passenger vehicle age in 2019 was 11.8 years: https://www.bts.gov/content/average-age-automobiles-and-truc...

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#65

Post by close04 »

jm4 wrote: post #53
nicoburns wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but they’re going to feel that way no matter what they drive. The difference is that a "random mechanic" is an option with most manufacturers. And it's not with Tesla.

But my point is that most people don’t care. Certainly the ones who buy a Tesla don’t. This is like arguing that the iPhone is a bad phone because it doesn’t have a removable battery. For some, that’s a real issue. It may have been somewhat controversial in the beginning. These days no one cares because it hasn’t turned out to be a major issue for most. A bunch of manufacturers find ways to get owners back to the dea…

> But my point is that most people don’t care.

Plenty do, they just also want a premium electric car despite the downsides, not because it has none. You just keep oscillating between your point being that "you" don't care, or "most people" don't care.

I think the biggest single disadvantage Tesla has compared to other manufacturers is the service network, either dedicated or partnerships. Even in places where there's no "dealership mafia" like the EU.

Outside of internet discussions where someone needed to convince themselves that everyone shares their point of view I never met a person who said "I don't care how much my personal car costs to repair, how long it takes, or how many hoops I have to jump through to do it". Definitely not after they faced the challenges. Some may afford to absorb the extra costs but this doesn't mean they don't care.

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#67

Post by rcMgD2BwE72F »

clouddrover wrote: post #36
trade_unionist wrote: post #31

I hope Musk is still cool once Tesla is a monopoly. Companies have a tendency to turn on their users/customers once they get giant.

Tesla has gone from being the number 1 BEV manufacturer in Europe to now being number 3. Soon Hyundai will also overtake them in Europe and Tesla will fall back to 4th: https://www.schmidtmatthias.de/post/april-2020-european-elec... So don't worry about Tesla becoming a monopoly. It's not a practical reality.

Or maybe Tesla couldn't ship car to Europe for delivery in April -- contrary to the VW group, whose sales are mostly local stock and who don't have to ship the cars across the Atlantic.

Also, Tesla delivers most its cars in Europe in the first month of the quarter. So comparing VW and Tesla over two periods with only partial quarter sales makes very little sense. Matthias Schmidt has known this for years, for some reason, he still prefer not to tell his audience about such a huge bias in the data. Weird.

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#68

Post by LyndsySimon »

jm4 wrote: post #60
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The kinds of routine maintenance and repair items you typically don’t want to take your car to a dealer for aren’t much of a thing on a Tesla. They're still cars. Give it 10yr and you'll still need all the same suspension and steering related service that every other car needs. Nobody wants to pay a dealer to do something trivial like CV boots or wheel bearings.

True, but I won’t own the car in 10 years so I don’t care. I’m not discounting your point or anyone else’s on merit. What I’m getting at is that it’s a minority position and most people don’t care. How many 10 year old cars do you see out on the road? Yeah, they’re out there, but most of them are a lot newer than that. Most buyers just don’t keep a car long enough for any of this to matter and the ones that do care h…

> How many 10 year old cars do you see out on the road? Yeah, they’re out there, but most of them are a lot newer than that

This must be a regional thing. I would guess the majority of vehicleS on the road in Arkansas are more than 10 years old. My daily driver is a 2000 (built in 1999). Granted, it’s a Jeep Wrangler, so that’s probably not representative of the overall market... but my wife’s vehicle is a 2015 Kia Sorento and still looks and feels “new”.

Out of curiosity, how much do you drive your Tesla? I don’t commute every day but my Jeep has ~180k on it. The Kia has ~120k. We’re starting to consider upgrading the Kia, but unless we find a crazy deal it would surprise me if we kept it another five years and 100k+ miles.

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#69

Post by jgalt212 »

amcoastal wrote: post #6
brianwawok wrote: post #3

Makes sense. Model Y is picking up steam. I doubt they are selling 100% production of the other models (Y is eating a bit into sales of all 3). S and X are both in need of a refresh, they have worse battery tech than both the 3 and Y and missing some of the cool Y features (heat pump, octovalve). Current wait is 8-12 weeks on a Y, and only a week or two on the rest. In line for my first Tesla (a y). It has been a ver…

Good luck! Tesla's are marvels of technology, but the lockdown they have on maintenance and repair -- which includes extremely high costs -- is enough to shy me away until we get a 'right-to-repair' law.

> the lockdown they have on maintenance and repair

This is not endemic to Telsa, or even to the auto industry. It's in $800K tractors as well.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-03-05/farmers-f...

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#70

Post by dawnerd »

andrewmunsell wrote: post #34
brianwawok wrote: post #3

Makes sense. Model Y is picking up steam. I doubt they are selling 100% production of the other models (Y is eating a bit into sales of all 3). S and X are both in need of a refresh, they have worse battery tech than both the 3 and Y and missing some of the cool Y features (heat pump, octovalve). Current wait is 8-12 weeks on a Y, and only a week or two on the rest. In line for my first Tesla (a y). It has been a ver…

There's a couple areas where Tesla needs help, and the two I've experience so far waiting for my Y is logistics & customer service. They've had extremely lousy communication so far with the delivery. I was originally supposed to have the car on Memorial Day, but they called the day before saying it wasn't in WA (where I live) yet. When I called back on Memorial Day and asked where it actually was, they told me it got…

It seems highly dependent on which service center and who is assigned to you. I places two orders early this year and the first one the guy didn’t really respond to my emails at all but the second one was very responsive and proactive.

Regardless they really really need to work on this.

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