mattjs33
Member
Well why the hell are you here then, self flagellation?
You should know by now, but since you asked it's because Tesla is by orders of magnitude the most interesting automotive story of our time. Anyone with any interest at all in the automotive industry should find them compelling, no matter how you feel about them.
If I care about the company? … I'm not worried that if they don't sell a $35,000 car they are going to die.
No, you should be worried if they DO sell a $35K car. They're doing so at a loss.
What's funny is you insist Tesla needs a relatively inexpensive car to survive in the market yet you simultaneously don't acknowledge that selling a cheap car that they lose money on will kill them faster than demand slowing on their more profitable cars.
Wrong. In all the years I've been here, I've never insisted they needed an inexpensive car to survive in the market. In fact, if it was me running the company I would have stayed in the premium end of the market. They were doing fantastic there.
It was Elon who decided he had to move downmarket, because he seems bent on being declared the world's savior or something. Eliminate fossil fuel dependency, something like that. More EVs in more hands. I would have waited another decade maybe.
I have also long acknowledged that Tesla cannot sell the $35K Model 3 profitably. I got a lot of pushback on this despite Elon Himself saying so.
My point of contention has long been that they should never have said they would sell a $35K version, if they knew they could not profitably do so. And my opinion is, they knew a long time ago they couldn't, yet kept saying they could. But as long as they said so, they had an obligation to provide the product they advertised to great fanfare, to the customers that put money down for it.
We can argue whether or not they have reasonably fulfilled that obligation, due to all the upselling they've done and how hard they've made it to actually buy the thing, for what I suspect will be a very short time.
It's not a weak argument because its FACTUALLY true. Any 35K in 2016 is 37K today. Check inflation calculators yourself if you don't believe me.
Regardless, the $35K Model 3 is here today and you can order one. Full stop.
Anything Tesla wants to do, after this month or whatever is up their discretion.
The 35K Model 3 today with the partial premium interior is a ridiculous deal. Anyone who KNOWS about AND doesn't take it have to forever hold their silence.
I'll say this, it IS a ridiculous deal. Which is why it likely won't last, I think we agree.
I myself took beatings when I said the $35K Model would not be profitable. it never was, and wont at least through 2019.
We agree on this as well, pretty sure we always have.
Go buy a Tesla already @mattjs33 - you got no excuses man.
Well, it's this whole thing about not having a car payment right now, and really enjoying that. It's not really in the budget right now, and to be frank, I probably would not buy a Tesla until they get their sh!t sorted out. In any case, $35K buys a hell of a lot of used car, and I'm not one to be afraid of that. When I'm ready, maybe Tesla is in that conversation but I don't really need EV so we'll see.
I don't see a couple hundred thousand Teslas making much difference, so it's hard for me to buy into the "mission". As long as the heavy transport problem goes unsolved (ships, trains, airplanes) and as long as the third world lags behind developmentally, the earth is pretty much f*cked no matter what.