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Official: Upcoming Model S Price Increase & Timeline

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Jeeps17

Cath Jockey in a P85
Mar 17, 2012
1,040
505
Montreal, Canada
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And for those of us that have very high reservation numbers, who won't even be asked to "configure" until 1st or 2nd quarter of 2013, what does it mean?

Nothing, anyone with a current reservation or anyone that reserves before the new pricing is announced will not be affected. Unless of cource you decide you just have to have one of the new options :wink:

Given the current reservations count the price increase will most likely take place 3rd Qtr 2013. My guess is it's going to relate to Model S 1.5.

So the question is, is there going to be a big jump in reservations over the next couple of weeks as people lock in the price or is it going to maintain it's current daily rate with some people figuring they will add a month or two to their wait time and get Model S 1.5?
 
And for those of us that have very high reservation numbers, who won't even be asked to "configure" until 1st or 2nd quarter of 2013, what does it mean? I'm not paying a penny over $92,000 for my Model S :)


It means they will send you an email with the new pricing and choices, and they will ask you to configure and finalize "within a fair, predetermined timeframe". Meaning, they will tell you how long you have to make your choices. As long as you abide by the time frame they give you, you will not be subject to the price increase.
 
This makes perfect sense. Original pricing was based on the plans from over 2 years ago. Tesla has clearly said they want to have 25% margins. A lot of people on blogs and commenting on articles have said they didn't think that Tesla could keep those margins. The simple solution that every business makes is to raise prices until you are meeting your profit margins. Tesla has a good idea of costs now that they have hired people and bought equipment to make their cars. I don't expect the increase to be a significant one and the lower end will porbably be hit the hardest.

This might be a result of the aluminum price increase.

Remember that this happened with the Roadster too.

It will only effect those purchasing a car that they will receive nine months from now.
 
Nothing, anyone with a current reservation or anyone that reserves before the new pricing is announced will not be affected. Unless of cource you decide you just have to have one of the new options :wink:

I'm glad that Tesla is not increasing the price for existing reservation holders, and I suspect that this "fair, predetermined timeframe" is 30 days from receiving your "It's Time to Build..." email.

The obvious question pertains to what is driving the price increase.

Also, as you stated, I'm curious if we lock-in if we will be able to get any of these options. Maybe I want to nix the sunroof for the center console...who knows?
 
The obvious question pertains to what is driving the price increase.

Here are some guesses:
1) After building a bunch of Model Ss, they're finding it hard to achieve the gross margins they were expecting.
2) With the reservation rate currently exceeding their build capacity, they realized they could make more money by charging more. The reservation rate might drop, but when you're limited by capacity, not reservations, that doesn't matter as much.
3) They'd prefer some more short term cash at the expense of long term cash. If you hear prices are going up, you might be more tempted to send them $5k today rather than waiting.
4) Inflation.
5) After seeing what options people are buying, and what options people are asking for, they've decided to restructure things anyway. While restructuring, they figure they can get some more revenue.
6) Now that the $7500 tax credit seems safe for a couple years (thanks to Obama), they don't have to worry as much that the US gov't will cause an effective price hike that makes them noncompetitive.

I suspect it's some combination of the above. Given all the reasons to do it, and the scarcity of reasons not to (lower long term demand that they couldn't satisfy anyway), I think it seems quite sensible. If the reservation rate plummets in the next few months, they can always roll back their decision with little lasting harm.
 
Even though I'm logged into My Tesla it won't let me see that, says permission denied.

I get this problem all the time on TeslaMotors.com.
Right after you log in, try clicking on the link again. Sometimes that works for me, sometimes it doesn't.

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Yep, Me too.
Oh, this is odd: the bulletin board now shows as empty.
http://www.teslamotors.com/en_CA/forums/inside-tesla/tesla-bulletin-board
Earlier today, it had a half dozen questions and answers on it, including the price increase one.