- Autopilot is now standard, but the cost of the vehicles is only going up by $2000 instead of the $3000 cost of the autopilot upgrade. a combination upsell / discount move. it makes sense since every car has this hardware anyway, and it's such a huge part of the Tesla experience. (does this mean the $35k Model 3 is gone for good? RIP, you were so young...)
- Leasing, finally! I've never leased a car. How big of a deal-breaker is it to not have the option to buy at the end?
- That comment buried in the leasing section about the Tesla Ride-Hailing Network might be the biggest needle-mover in this letter. Another ace up Tesla's sleeve.
- They are STRONGLY trying to upsell people from the Standard to Standard+. Making people do physical work to get the Standard (must visit a store or call them on some arcane device called a "telephone"), and then once they do, give them the temptation of knowing they're REALLY driving a Standard+, and need only visit the website to upgrade it at any time! This is a great financial move. i very much doubt there's any appreciable difference in cost to manufacture those two variants. Combining them into one physical product further reduces costs of both, while most likely increasing the eventual number of Standard+ sales (since anyone who buys the Standard can upgrade at any time.
- Model 3 LR RWD is also going "off-menu". What's the reason for this one? is it also a low-margin offering? I love Tesla, but I'm not buying their stated reason of "simplifying our website", haha.
overall, really cool news and stuff to be excited for, in my opinion.
