I don’t buy the argument that Tesla is all about profits. Clearly the quarterly numbers matter, and they made the decision to structure their deliveries to minimize the number of vehicles in transit over the quarterly boundary. But I can’t really blame them for that — wasn’t it Q1 2019 when the stock was utterly hammered due to lower deliveries due to a lot of cars on boats? And, big picture, they’re still shipping the same number of cars to all parts of the country over the course of the quarter, it’s not just a money-grab to leave the bulk of California deliveries to late in the quarter. The only reason we even notice is the ramp seems to have made a big jump late in the quarter by which time they were on mostly California.
The six seat thing… it makes sense to pick some one variation to go first. Maybe it was because of the price… maybe because they had more available… maybe because they make it in-house… maybe because it was most popular… maybe because the motorized seats give the best hi-tech impression… I don’t think we know but I have a hard time saying it’s just a money grab.
Also, they could have bent over backward to get the plaid out first. As we know, they had a year to accomplish it!
Finally, it may be that Mercedes or BMW give a better build and delivery experience for their products that are already ramped and on the market (I haven’t noticed stories about new or substantially refreshed models from legacy OEMs). But I don’t think the amount I spend on a product in and of itself justifies a different level of service. I would hope if Tesla gives a better delivery experience, even those who order a base Model 3 or future “Model 2” would get it — not just those laying down six figures. For some reason the “customers who spend $100k deserve more” argument rubs me the wrong way in a way that “Tesla can/should do better” doesn’t.
But, all that aside, I’m still waiting, and still not enjoying the minivan until such a time as my reservation number comes up. I hope the ramp continues to accelerate.