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On Feb. 28, Tesla announced that it was finally taking over the long-promised Model 3 model at $ 35,000 (or "Standard Range"). At the time, the company believed that its customers should wait between two and four weeks delivery. Four weeks later, it seems that the company did not send a single copy, while customers who placed orders are told that these cars were delayed indefinitely, according to new reports in The reader and Tesla Fan Blog ELECTrek.
The reader Ed Niedermeyer has discovered several reports on Reddit and various Tesla forums, such as Tesla Motors Club, Tesla Global Owners Club, even the one on the Tesla website, where customers received messages from the company telling them that their deliveries were delayed. These texts would not have given a new date of delivery to these customers. If some felt that the estimate of their online accounts was "six to eight" weeks, Tesla representatives would have told them not to trust these numbers. (This figure "six to eight" per week also appears for new orders on the Tesla website.)
In the meantime, some of these customers claim that Tesla employees contacted them shortly thereafter to encourage them to purchase more expensive models, such as the "Standard Range Plus" version which starts at $ 37,500, which is faster and offers a slightly higher price. interval. ELECTrek reports some of the same requests, but with significantly less revenue than The reader.
Tesla declined to comment in response to a number of questions from The edge.
In a way, this is consistent with Tesla's approach throughout its history. The company has only recently started making large-scale cars and has traditionally sold the most expensive versions of its cars first to generate the higher margins it uses to support the production of cheaper models. In fact, CEO Elon Musk said last year that the company had to sell more expensive versions of the car not to die. But as both The reader and ELECTrek It is strange to see one of Tesla's cars delayed so close to the end of a financial quarter, when the company is once again increasing internal pressure for the delivery of as many cars as possible.
Waiting a few more weeks for an upscale electric car might not seem like a big deal. But there is a countdown here, namely that Tesla's cars are gradually losing their eligibility for the federal electric vehicle tax credit. The company adopted 200,000 electric vehicles sold in North America last summer, which is an important step by the government to ensure that credit does not last forever. As of January 1 of this year, buyers were only eligible for a credit of $ 3,750. This falls again on July 1 at $ 1,875 and expires completely at the end of the year.
More generally, the apparent delay shows that Tesla was not quite ready to keep the promise of a $ 35,000 version of Model 3 when it announced the end of February. Do not forget that this car debuted almost three years ago to the day and that the final version was presented two years ago. Thousands of people on the pre-order list have probably been waiting since then to order the most affordable version of Tesla's "mainstream" car. It took all these years, hell of production, delivery logistics, and the decision to close several stores to reach the point where Tesla finally felt comfortable announcing the model 3 to $ 35,000 last month. But this week, it seems that there is still a little work to do.
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