Model S deliveries to start in 1 month !

Tesla advertised & will produce the $57400 base Model S with no options if someone orders one. They are building the high end cars first, working their way down as I posted earlier.

After the reservations are filled will cars built to order be cheaper due to falling battery prices or will Tesla's margin improve? Will a cheaper base car be de-featured? Only time will tell.

AFAIK battery swaps/upgrades/rentals haven't been publicly discussed. I'm sure those discussions are scheduled for "later" as the priority is delivering cars to paying customers and all the batteries are needed for production.

I get the impression that Tesla is paying more attention to the customer than other manufacturers do. I hope it doesn't change.

 

In for $50K, in for $100K is the old saying.

People are in luxury car market with a Tesla. Fair to say top end of the luxury car market due to the new technology nature of the car.

Tesla has back order of 10,000 cars. It has $750M in debt. 7,500 x $100K.

With those parameters, demand, customer demographic and their bottom line are all pointing to $100K loaded vehicles. Only reason Tesla would "build down" would be it runs out of the bigger batteries.

Plus selling the longer range vehicles is better for building the EV market in general and Tesla in particular. The long range of the top end vehicle takes the edge off the disadvantages of EV vehicles.

 

So a 50k vehicle is the same as a 100k vehicle??
Never heard of the 'old saying' you refer to.

I also question you debt numbers, I thought the government loan was on the order of 450M?

Tesla has all the reason in the world to build a variety of Model Ss. With EVs different people need different ranges. If you never need more than 200 miles, why pay for enough batteries to take you 300?

 

So you can still go 200 miles after the batteries are few years old.

 

At $50K, this a high level of disposable income and the car is statement/status symbol. I would guess 90% of Tesla's 10,000 vehicle backorders are for the higher end vehicles.

It's still a loan to be paid back. Tesla's current debt is around $750M which can be paid back with 7,500 $100K car sales.

$750M more reasons to build high ends. You'll note that on Tesla website, only the high end $75K and up Signature series are listed for current delivery. The less expensive vehicles have in the future delivery dates.

Because that is the only model available right now. You can never be too thin, too rich or have too much EV range.​

 

Or so you can go 200 miles in inclement conditions.

My rule with a BEV would be to get about double my key range. I commute 41.4 miles round trip and leave in a wintry place so I would want about 83 miles of reasonable range. I'm "better than EPA", so I think a LEAF would be enough for me. Shame my wife is dead against a BEV.

 

For Christmas, park a Tesla Signature S in front of the house with red ribbon like the Lexus ads. I think she'll love her new EV.

 

A Signature S can't be bought. The reservations filled up quite some time ago. When one pays more money one gets to stand at the front of the line. As the 10,000 reservations are converted to orders cash flow will improve but most of that money won't be available to retire debt.

 

This is where the difficult part starts. The price of the car is amazing considering it's a new from the ground up car from a new company. I've been skeptical from the start that they could make ago of it without raising their prices which would hose them by reducing demand.

Maybe I'm wrong and I hope I am. After all, if the guy can get a commercial spacecraft in orbit and dock it with the ISS, he is bound to be full of delightful surprises. Musk is not your average short sighted business puke.

 

He is probably the closest thing to Tony Stark we have!

 

That's going to hurt sales fer shure.

More like young Howard Hughes who revolutionized aviation and air travel the same way Musk is doing with space travel and cars.

 

I think it must have been. Although I suppose technically he is correct as Tesla could have sold more 'signature' edition cars if they allowed more than 1200.

As an aside, the first user video has appeared. Very fun, loved the Google maps right in the instrument console (about 2 minutes in).

 

Yes, that is garbage, tesla will surely produce the base model S for people that order them.

The debt is $366 Million as of the last tesla financial report.

 

You know he made a cameo in iron man.

 

Tony Stark is a weapons dealer which is the antithesis of Musk who left South Africa to avoid service in an apartheid military and whose industrial base is decidedly tree hugger with SpaceX, Solar World and Tesla.

 

Tesla is $759.26M in debt. Because Tesla runs at a loss, it uses money from stockholders to pay operating expenses, that plus the external debt of $366M is where the (correct) figure of "$750M in debt" comes from. You'll see it under "Retained Earnings".

As the Tesla site notes, it is only offering the high end $100K range Signature Series cars for sale. With a 10,000 order backlog and the $759.26 (and rising) debt to clear, selling the $100K cars is the smart way to go and, per the website, the way they are going. Giving Tesla's buyer demographic, they probably would have a hard time getting the buyers to "step down" to the lower priced models.

 

He will when he has excess production capacity after he is caught up on the higher margin top end models.

I'm assuming he has a higher margin on the top end models, probably a safe assumption.

Tesla has made a truly impressive accomplishment getting to where they are now, next challenge is to make a profit.

Edit: I see Proximal beat me to the punch

 

Musk did? That's awesome!