Tesla tries to kill two birds with one stone as it launches new incentives to both deliver more vehicles by the end of the year and get more employees on its new Autopilot Hardware 3 test program.
Earlier this year, Tesla sought “hundreds of employees” to test its full self-driving system and offers free Autopilot upgrades with new purchases.
The automaker is retrofitting participants’ vehicles with the new Hardware 3 computer to test the self-driving system.
Earlier this week, we reported on Tesla seeking again more participants in the program.
Musk reached out to employees again the following day to incentivize them, even more, to jump on the program and order a car by the end of the year.
He wrote to employees in another email on Friday:
“Important point I forgot to mention is that, since we still only have premium interior available for Model 3, the $5,000 premium interior cost will be waived for this program. For those who have already ordered as part of the FSD program, Tesla will honor the discount.”
It adds to the free Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving package that they were already offering, which means a total discount of $13,000 for employees, who rarely get discounts on Tesla vehicles.
Furthermore, Musk told employees that they can even apply accrued paid time off to the purchase of a vehicle.
Like all the latest incentives given to customers, Musk highlighted the fact that those employees incentives as part of the Full Self-Driving test program are also only available until the end of the year.
Electrek’s Take
It looks like Tesla is actually having some difficulties getting people on this program since they have been trying for months.
It’s kind of understandable since not that many Tesla employees can actually afford Tesla vehicles, but it’s now becoming a great opportunity for many of them.
As Musk pointed out in the email, the Model 3 with Mid-Range battery pack will cost employees only $30,200 in California after federal and local incentives.
That’s an extremely attractive deal and as we previously reported, Tesla still has some Mid-Range Model 3 inventory vehicles that it wants to deliver by the end of the year and it now looks like it’s turning to employees to sell them.
To be fair, it’s also a good deal for Tesla who is trying to get some valuable feedback for its full self-driving test program at the same time.
While the value of the discount is quite significant, employees are committing to hours of driving and provide feedback, which is hard to put a value number on but it has to be worth a lot.
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