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Two weeks ago, Tesla removed model 3 of $ 35,000 from its website, making it an "off-menu" item. When asked, they could not say for how long the model would be available – which has led many people, including Electrek, to assume that it was a problem. an attempt to "kill" the car.
It seems that death will not happen again. As in Tesla's first quarter earnings call, CEO Elon Musk has promised that the 35k model "is here and will remain" for sale indefinitely.
The release of Model 3, valued at $ 35,000, was a great success, the culmination of Tesla's original 2006 "Secret Master Plan".
Since this announcement, however, several developments have taken place. Many early customers saw their delivery dates canceled, with no indication of when Tesla would get them, and some eventually canceled their order and bought another vehicle. After Tesla was weird for a while, they eventually pulled the car's list off the website, but they announced that they would continue to sell by phone or in person. Finally, the first model 3 deliveries of $ 35,000 began last week.
During today's call, Musk said customers did not need to "go through an obstacle course" to order the standard Model 3 range, all they needed was a visit to the store. or a phone call. Despite this weak additional barrier to purchase, orders were quite low for model 3 of the standard range, according to Musk.
Instead of Model 3 of the $ 35,000 standard range, the Tesla website shows the base model at $ 39.5K as a base model, with autopilot and battery life around 10% higher than the standard $ 35,000 car. The $ 35,000 car also does not have access to a variety of onboard features such as music streaming, live-traffic viewing and heated seats. All these features are limited by the software and customers can "upgrade" anytime they wish, provided they pay the difference in cost.
During the call, Musk said that these features constituted a "good compromise" for customers, and that the Standard Range Plus offered an excellent value for money compared to the Standard Range car of 35,000 USD. Customers seem to agree, since the order rate on the car at $ 35,000 is low.
Tesla also mentioned, in his results letter today and at Tesla 's Independence Day, earlier this week, that a model 3 robotaxi endowed with everything the equipment needed for self-driving and a battery capable of lasting a million miles would cost "$ 38,000 to produce", is higher than the cost of a model of the standard range 3.
Electrek's Take
First of all, a little bit of a mea culpa from us. We said that Tesla had "killed" model 3 and we may have exaggerated it. It was not just the opinion of one of us, but all of Electrek's staff contributed to the editorial section of this post and we agreed that this seemed like a clear attempt to kill the car, so that's our title.
In the article "Take", we mentioned that the car was not completely "dead", but that since Tesla deleted the template from the website and that it will never produce the basic model nor the interior, it seems that they have killed any intention to take seriously the construction of this car.
We also asked Tesla for how long Model 3 would remain available "off the menu", and they declined to comment. We have not heard anything about this until today, when Musk said he will "stay" for sale.
As mentioned, Tesla has already adopted similar measures with other models, including the 40 kWh S. Tesla has used the same justification to eliminate this model, saying that consumer demand is simply not enough. It was after a long period of time that Tesla was trying much more to sell models higher than the 40 kWh, convincing the reservation holders to buy 60kWh instead, to get the car earlier, and so on.
So Tesla: If you really intend to sell this car, why make it harder, why remove from the list and tell people that nobody wants it? This is very similar to the justification you used to kill the 40 kWh model S, and we hope you will not use it as a justification for killing this model. We would like to be wrong.
The fact remains that even though a phone call or a visit to the store is a barrier to entry is a barrier at the entrance. A barrier which means that the consumer is not aware of the availability of the model when shopping (since it is not listed) and that a customer must therefore contact a seller who will know well explain why unbelievable the features are totally worth this additional increase of about 12% of the price.
And it's true, the Standard Plus range seems to represent a considerable jump in value. When it was first announced, many people who were waiting for the $ 35,000 basic car rushed and achieved standard autonomy, believing that the craze was worth it. Especially at the time, the comparison was opposed to the possible "standard" interior, which Tesla had not (and still has not) manufactured and which did not offer the synthetic leather interior of You're here.
If Tesla can not yet sell Model 3 at $ 35,000 profitably, it has the right not to try to sell it very hard. But in this case, why introduce it to start? Why not just wait for costs? And how does this portend the eventual release of an even cheaper car, what Tesla has claimed to want to do in the future?
If it's just an honest attempt to keep their promise, but to lead customers in every way possible to buy high-end vehicles, then it does not matter. Companies want to sell more expensive products, we can accept this as a reasonable proposal.
We simply think that Tesla could have been less bizarre about this whole deployment – and backtracking.
Be that as it may, the standard car continues to be available, but perhaps under respiratory assistance. We will not fail to report any further developments.
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