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This last bit is an interesting statement, "While the P100D Ludicrous is obviously an expensive vehicle, we want to emphasize that every sale helps pay for the
by beamatronic 10y ago
This last bit is an interesting statement,
"While the P100D Ludicrous is obviously an expensive vehicle, we want to emphasize that every sale helps pay for the smaller and much more affordable Tesla Model 3 that is in development. Without customers willing to buy the expensive Model S and X, we would be unable to fund the smaller, more affordable Model 3 development."
- mey 10y agoThat's been Tesla's business plan for quite some time, use luxury cars to fund the company to mass production. It isn't news, but it does seem out of context.
- forgetsusername 10y ago>That's been Tesla's business plan for quite some time In practice, they've used stock dilution and debt to fund the business.
- wrsh07 10y agoPlus selling some higher end cars to extend their runway and build out production facilities...
- canes123456 10y agoThe high end cars have only been "profitable" recently. If you taken into account R&D and the production build up, the model s still in debt.
- _benedict 10y agoextending your runway implies unprofitable
- njharman 10y agohttps://finance.yahoo.com/quote/tsla/financials?ltr=1 https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/tsla/financials?ltr=1
- Randuin 10y agoIs the Model S not mass produced?
- mey 10y agoCompaing US sales of Model S for 2015 to say something like a Toyota RAV4 (a popular but not top selling car in the US) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Model_S#Top_selling_countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Model_S#Top_selling_coun... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_RAV4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_RAV4 Model S 2015: 25,202 Toyota RAV 4 2015: 315,412 In the US, the best selling vehicle the Ford F-Series which sold 780,354 in 2015 So I wouldn't say it's not mass produced, but it hasn't hit full economy of scale, and isn't designed to.
- dsfyu404ed 10y agoIf you really want to make Tesla production numbers seem tiny then compare it to vehicle platforms.
- thinkmassive 10y agoCompared with other EVs the volumes seem pretty high: http://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/ http://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/ Compared to a comparable line of luxury cars, for instance the BMW 5-series, the volumes are relatively low: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_5_Series#Production_and_sales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_5_Series#Production_and_sa...
- njharman 10y agoThe roadster wasn't, Each model has funded devel/production of the following model. I think parent meant S&X are funding "mass productions (model 3)"
- sowbug 10y agoProduction for the masses might be more on point.
- collinmanderson 10y agoThey frequently get a lot of people complaining that they're just selling really expensive luxury cars to the rich, so they have to keep repeating this. The high performance car is needed to both fund mass production and prove that electric cars aren't golf carts. Sorry, I tried finding a citation for that. It's in some Elon video from the past month or so.
- sowbug 10y agoSecret Master Plan from ten years ago: https://www.tesla.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-just-between-you-and-me https://www.tesla.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-j...
- collinmanderson 10y agoRight. Right. I mean I was looking for a citation on them getting a lot of complaints from people who don't know their master plan.
- biot 10y agoI was about to quote that myself. While it's true that their luxury models help fund newer models, it's rather odd to state that in a press release. It comes across as: "Please pay too much for this vehicle and help subsidize someone else's future purchase."
- ceejayoz 10y agoWhich can be effective, if marketed properly. See carbon credits and marketing products as carbon-neutral for an example.
- incongruity 10y agoSure, but even phrased that way, it differentiates it from some other potential substitute brands – Audi, BMW, etc. where there's no stated effort to produce a car "for everyone else." It may well help shift the brand reputation from luxury for profit to something like next-generation or innovation and progress.
- mikeash 10y agoI would read it more like: "I know several hundred thousand of you are eagerly anticipating the Model 3. Don't worry, we're still working hard to get it out, this is part of it, not a distraction from getting your cars to you."
- soared 10y ago"Your purchase will allow more consumers to make a similar, energy-saving, green purchase" Its a value-add of sorts, the money you give Tesla goes not to a massive car company, but to other consumers who have similar values to yours.
- njharman 10y ago"subsidize someone else's future purchase" Not what it says at all. And you'd have to be pretty oblivious to how companies, esp growing ones, operate (which I'll give you the average American probably is) to take it that way. The models sold today are subsidising the research, design, cost of operations(salaries) that lead to a model 3 launch. Tesla is feeding it's profits back into growth. Same as all growing companies do.
- gist 10y agoA clever marketing way of having people get over the guilt of buying a luxury product.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- ethanbond 10y agoDoesn't mean it's illegitimate. Buying a luxury Tesla is better than buying a luxury BMW, for everyone.
- fossuser 10y agoSomething they have to repeatedly say to stop the press from going on about how they only make luxury cars for the rich. Elon's 'Top Secret Master Plan' has been around since the start.
- andrewtbham 10y agoIt is also to help influence people considering buying other electric vehicles... so if you're considering a bmw i8 or waiting for porsche mission e, you might think... this will help promote electric vehicles for the masses.
- seanp2k2 10y agoAnd other objectives, like colonizing space (SpaceX), standing up to the shady business of car dealerships and their stranglehold on car sales (Tesla cuts out that middle man), etc etc.
- clarkmoody 10y agoIt is precisely profit from one business venture that allows a firm to invest in order to produce additional goods for consumers. All the consumer demand in the world could not create a Tesla Model 3; only saving and investment can.
- sandworm101 10y agoThere is something odd about one consumer product funding another. Someone once wrote about the VW Veron that is was a shame that all the not-rich people buying VW Jettas paid a little more, and got a little worse of a car, so that a handful of the super rich could have Verons. Telsa would be doing the opposite. The rich people buying the expensive car are paying more, and getting less car, so that Tesla can make cheaper cars. Maybe Tesla will pull it off, but it seems unsustainable. VW could justify it as the Veron project was a tiny part of a giant company. Tesla isn't VW. Eventually someone will want to stovepipe the money made on one market into further developments for that market alone.