@MXWing, where you been? Missed you.
Anyway, yes I was a bit surprised by the news yesterday. If I'm being honest, the $35K version seems to be the one to buy. I can drive on my own so I don't need the alphabet soup PUP EAP FUD TKO WTF or whatever it all is. I still hate the screen but I get why it is the way it is.
The real story here is Elon telling the world they can only sell this car profitably by completely gutting the sales and marketing teams. I was up late last night with a bad cough and read a few things, did some thinking on it.
As one who railed Tesla hardest on where the hell the $35K car is, this does not look like maybe the best move right now. I'll just say this, there are a lot of people who will look at this as a desperation move. I don't know if it is, but it can sure be colored that way. The very fact they are saying you can order the base car today and get it in 2-4 weeks means there really wasn't anything left of their Day One reservation list. Also, weren't they supposed to be focusing on EU and China cars for the next few weeks, and selling from inventory here? When are they going to build these SR cars?
I'm interested in your take, someone elsewhere here last night indicated the weight on the MR car was close enough to the SR cars to indicate merely a software limited battery for the base car. If so, that's going to eat into their (admittedly high) margins. The rest came from seats and audio? I dunno.
I personally also think closing the stores is a bad idea. Elon really wants to commoditize automobiles and I just don't think the world is ready for that. Cars are a huge, emotional purchase and saying there are no test drives will not play with a lot of people. They can trot out the 82% online purchase rate all they want but I still think even today the Model 3 is still solidly in fan / early adopter mode. And folks telling me to just Turo a test drive seem to forget that traditional test drives are free. Last year they invited owners to be at delivery events to tout the cars and help new buyers, now they are saying they don't need anyone for that? Seems weird.
I also question the thinking they can address most service issues with ranger service. There's a lot of threads here about service issues and I just don't see how anyone can afford to service a couple hundred thousand cars buy sending techs individually out into the field. And saying most service in an hour is just not realistic, most people with even a little experience in this area can see right through that. With the critical tech shortage we have now, where are these guys going to come from?
Anyway, saying this is what it takes to sell the $35K profitably only confirms what I was saying last week, that they can't sell it profitably right now (the way the company exists at present). It's still my opinion they should never have promised a $35K Model 3 at launch, and all this stuff smells like Elon doing what it takes to be able to say he did meet his target after all. At the very least, they should have waited longer, despite my complaints. Cutting sales and marketing staff is not a good look and saying they don't really need them is a bit of arrogance.
I'm quite interested in how the markets respond today and what industry types are saying about it in the moment. One way or the other this is a turning point in Telsa's history. As always I'm curious of your thoughts.
Car looks nice though.
