Last week we reported on Tesla announcing that it will open Model X orders online and in-store in “a couple of weeks”. Now we learn through a deleted tweet from CEO Elon Musk that it could start as soon as tomorrow.
In the same tweet, Musk also made a peculiar comment about the price of the Model X.
Musk made the announcement Friday night before quickly removing the tweet. The CEO also shared Dan Neil’s review of the Model X and commented on the price:
“Model X with decent options is ~$78,000. Still expensive, but less so.”
Considering the base Model X without any option starts at $80,000, it’s not clear how Musk was configuring the vehicle, but he might have taken into account federal tax credit or gas savings.
Here’s the tweet in question:
As of now, the Model X online design studio is only available for reservation holders. Last week, Tesla started contacting reservation holders who have yet to turn their reservation into an order to encourage them to configure their vehicle now the company has ramped up Model X production to 750 units per week.
If they don’t, they will lose their reservation priority as new customers will be able to place their orders. Some showroom units have also been spotted at a select few stores, which should generate some demand.
Tesla is currently only delivering its all-electric SUV in the US, but it opened orders to reservation holders in Europe and Asia. By the time it launched the vehicle last year, Tesla had an estimated 30,000 reservations for the Model X.
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I don’t quite understand why they don’t start offering supercharging on a pay per use basis. This would lower the starting cost, free them from fascist rules about not actually being allowed to use them as much as you want and make it easy to let other brands use the network.
2000$ in particular on Model 3 is significant. It’s quite short sighted to think that the network can only be funded with full upfront payment for life.
They will. They have taken down the supercharger available/capable wording on their site and now just shows “supercharger”. Expect it to change.
What they can’t do is charge per kwh, as it would subject them to a morass of regulation.
They can charge per hour or per use — basically the way you charge for a parking space.
charging per kWh can be tricky in some states/countries, but if Tesla is planning on growing SuperCharger business for many years to come, it would be well worth it.
Electricity is so cheap that it is not worth it for them to charge per kwh. Especially once they install solar panels. We’ve run the numbers on this — the billing system would be more expensive than it was worth.
They’re having problems with overcrowded Superchargers, though. So charging per hour at the congested sites would make sense.
I just checked Musk’s tweets and I don’t see that one.
That is because Elon deleted it 🙂
They mention it in the article: “Musk made the announcement Friday night before quickly removing the tweet.”