Not quite sure how this is going to play out. AP1 cars remain better than anything else in the industry, and will likely stay that way even after AP2 becomes markedly superior. If a customer is choosing between an AP1 and an AP2 car, obviously the AP2 is worth more. If they're choosing between a used/CPO Tesla and something else, it isn't as clear. I'm not sure value will take a huge hit, especially since eAP is (at least for the moment) so much more expensive to begin with.
The way I see it is there was a serious hit to consumer confidence of Tesla with AP1 owners. Where they saw the value of their car drop significantly with the release of AP2 cars, but it was premature by AT LEAST a year. I would also argue that the vast majority of the significance of AP2 was in the potential that Elon drew.
Now that hit in resale was always excepted. We knew a good chunk of money in our cars was we were getting something largely ahead of it's time. When you do that you pay through the nose for it. We knew we were going to get beat up a bit. I took advantage of the tax credit, no sales tax, and resale value guarantee to lessen the blow. Those are what helped me get into the car.
All Tesla had to do was not screw up. To not purposely do things that felt disingenuous.
The switch to AP2 felt premature, but understandable. I knew it was a tough thing to pull off so I was always going to give them a lot of breathing room to figure it out. I didn't rush out to upgrade, and instead waited to see what would become of it. The way they've handled it is disingenuous.
FSD felt disingenuous, and I list it among the top three things of 2016 that made me feel like an alien on this planet. To put it very simply it won't be what was promised, but it will be cool despite that. Just like AP1 was cool, but it's certainly not on ramp to off ramp.
This latest one is small potatoes in the big scheme of things, but indicative of a larger pattern. Of not giving the customer critical information they need. It's too early to tell what the customer retention will be once competitors hit the scene, but I worry that Tesla is going to lose a lot of customers. Customers that Tesla primed to leave through dishonestly, and broken promises.
As time goes on I see more and more broken customers on TMC. Customers that used to be really pro Tesla, and now they seem like a kid who got beat up by their best friend. I'm not one yet as I tend to ignore the noise, and let the car do the talking. It's pretty quiet, but I'm pretty sure it's telling to me to drive it so drive it I do. So the real question is when the game changer arrives?
Is it EAP with automatic lane changing - Maybe, but is that really worth the expense of AP2?
Is it some form of FSD even if really limited - Possibly
Is it the vertical take off and land electric plane - Starting to seem plausible especially if all I have to do is land at supercharger to charge.
