New range of Model 3s announced - most stores to disappear

[Vostok]

Now back to Tesla news... earlier today they announced there will now be six variants of Model 3 - the long-awaited SR (at the originally promised cash price of USD $35k), SR+, MR, the return of the LR RWD (yay!), LRD and PLRD.

Tesla finally launches base Model 3 for $35,000 with shorter range and new interior

But they’ve also announced they will close most of their stores and just retain showrooms in key locations, essentially becoming an online-only car manufacturer:

Tesla changes entire sales strategy, makes sales online-only, closes stores w/layoffs

Very interesting developments. I imagine Tesla would keep its Martin Place showroom, but Artarmon is at risk since Alexandria is allegedly going to become its sole delivery centre for Sydney. This will impact the USA much more since clearly the spread of stores there is much bigger. I can also see it as a big “FU” to certain US state legislatures which prohibit Tesla operating stores in those states.

I can also understand the rationale - stores are bl**dy expensive to run and the “younger” generation increasingly like to just transact online.

What do others think?

 

[conman]

Sounds good to me. The SR+ it says will have 380km of range, but it doesn't explicitly say if the SR has the same range as the SR+.

 

[rohan_aus]

Now back to Tesla news... earlier today they announced there will now be six variants of Model 3 - the long-awaited SR (at the originally promised cash price of USD $35k), SR+, MR, the return of the LR RWD (yay!), LRD and PLRD.

Tesla finally launches base Model 3 for $35,000 with shorter range and new interior

But they’ve also announced they will close most of their stores and just retain showrooms in key locations, essentially becoming an online-only car manufacturer:

Tesla changes entire sales strategy, makes sales online-only, closes stores w/layoffs

Very interesting developments. I imagine Tesla would keep its Martin Place showroom, but Artarmon is at risk since Alexandria is allegedly going to become its sole delivery centre for Sydney. This will impact the USA much more since clearly the spread of stores there is much bigger. I can also see it as a big “FU” to certain US state legislatures which prohibit Tesla operating stores in those states.

I can also understand the rationale - stores are bl**dy expensive to run and the “younger” generation increasingly like to just transact online.

What do others think?

After chatting with Tesla Sydney staff recently, all of their back-end operations team who used to work out of the St. Leonards location have actually all moved to an office a few blocks away. I also haven't seen any cars in the delivery rooms at St. Leonards since Alexandria opened.

I suspect we'll see the end of St. Leonards, but I really, really hope they install another Supercharger to cover the loss of the St. Leonards location before they close the store. The broadway supercharger is often at capacity and it's also harder to get to.

 

[Icey]

I think the stores will stay (exception being the one ones in shopping centers possibly) as Tesla's are still new here. Once the M3 is in stores and people are getting test drives in them and M3 starts to become common place then they might shut them down.
Australia is a very different market to US & EU.

 

[paulp]

Tesla would struggle in Australia without a place that people can sit in the car and take it for a drive. Of course they could always do appointments at home or work for that.

 

[conman]

I don't think they mean to close all the stores, as they need to have at least one showroom to show their wares. The quote was: "Tesla will now focus primarily on online sales, with only a few physical locations in high-traffic areas, functioning as “Tesla information centers.”" I suspect given how few showrooms we have in Australia, they'll still have one per state here.

 

[ICUDoc]

"The Wait is almost Over" shows on the Tesla website (i went to price up a new P100D- just thinking....)
Wonder what is coming up??

 

[houdini]

Once logged in it states deliveries in right hand drive markets begin latter half of 2019. Bit ambiguous. If deliveries in right hand drive markets start with EU RHD, then maybe Asia RHD and the. Oz we could be waiting another 6 months after deliveries begin.

 

[paulp]

Ludicrous model s and x seemed to have dropped significantly in price, as has the base model s. Might have been a pricing error?

 

[Vostok]

"The Wait is almost Over" shows on the Tesla website (i went to price up a new P100D- just thinking....)
Wonder what is coming up??

That was the splash page they had before the announcement at 9am today. Everyone was redirected there if they clicked on any “order” button.

The splash page is still there though, now having been orphaned when the redirects were removed

Launching ...

 

[ICUDoc]

A P100D is now dramatically cheaper.
Please stop me upgrading to one from my P90D.
Tell me to save for a Roadster or amazing unexpected Tesla-alternative....

 

[paulp]

A P100D is now dramatically cheaper.
Please stop me upgrading to one from my P90D.
Tell me to save for a Roadster or amazing unexpected Tesla-alternative....

You’d be fairly annoyed if you bought last week......and also I suspect all resale values have just dropped too.
Even the ‘long range’ non ludicrous is only about 6k more than the shorter range (presume thats 100kwh vs 75kwh). Not sure that there is a market for the shorter range with such a small price difference.

 

[paulp]

A P100D is now dramatically cheaper.
Please stop me upgrading to one from my P90D.
Tell me to save for a Roadster or amazing unexpected Tesla-alternative....

Save for a roadster or amazing unexpected Tesla-alternative

 

[rohan_aus]

You’d be fairly annoyed if you bought last week......and also I suspect all resale values have just dropped too.
Even the ‘long range’ non ludicrous is only about 6k more than the shorter range (presume thats 100kwh vs 75kwh). Not sure that there is a market for the shorter range with such a small price difference.

The shorter range is actually a 100kwh battery pack that's software limited like the old 60 vs 75 packs.

 

[Jays200]

No change for Perth. No store, supercharger or service centre now, no store later. Reckon we'll be better off in the fullness of time.

 

[Shock-On-T]

You’d be fairly annoyed if you bought last week

Guy I work with bought a new XP100D 5 months ago for around $250K.
I just hope he doesn't hear about these price changes for a year or so. I'm certainly not going to bring it up.