Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Transportation The Almighty Buck

Elon Musk Cuts Price of Tesla Model S To $69,420 (techcrunch.com) 95

Posted by BeauHD from the dumb-joke-or-competitive-pricing?-Nobody-knows dept.
In a tweet, Elon Musk announced that Tesla will further cut the price of its Model S "Long Range" sedan to $69,420. "This pricing wasn't done on a whim and a joint," adds TechCrunch. "The price cut is likely in response to Lucid undercutting Tesla on pricing a few hours ago." From the report: Elon Musk declares that "The gauntlet has been thrown down." Earlier today, Lucid announced that its entry level sedan will cost $77,400 minus a $7,500 U.S. tax credit. Since most buyers qualify for the credit, that brings the effective price down to $69,900. You see where this is headed, right?

With a new starting price of $69,420, this would be the second Model S price cut this week. Roadshow by CNET reported yesterday the automaker quietly cut $3,000 off the Model S earlier this week, potentially in a bid to outdo Lucid before its announcement today. Earlier this year, Tesla cut $2,000 off the starting price of the Model 3.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Elon Musk Cuts Price of Tesla Model S To $69,420 More

Elon Musk Cuts Price of Tesla Model S To $69,420

Comments Filter:

  • 69 420 (Score:5, Funny)

    by olsmeister ( 1488789 ) on Wednesday October 14, 2020 @08:54PM (#60608446)
    Ha!
    • 4:20 _\|/_

    • Heh heh. You know, there's a great deal of Muskhate on the /. to go with the Musklove that rears its head with alarming regularity, but he is a clever nerd. Don't hate when you could go high road, and appreciate... it's better for your soul.

      PS: There's a /. poster with a signature jes lak dis.

    • Yeah, the 420 at least I some how don't think was just random chance, especially considering Elon. What kind of proper marketing person would end a price on such an awkward number as 420?

    • "This pricing wasn't done on a whim and a joint," adds TechCrunch

      420? Are you sure TechCrunch?

    • Re:69 420 (Score:5, Funny)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @05:38AM (#60609220)

      Ha!

      Are you serious? 69420 and you reply with "Ha!" instead of "Nice!"?

      Get outta here man and learn some pop culture.

    • For those of us who don't know, here's the joke:

      420, 4:20, or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) is cannabis culture slang for marijuana and hashish consumption, especially smoking around the time 4:20 pm, and also refers to cannabis-oriented celebrations that take place annually on April 20 (which is 4/20 in U.S. form).

  • The Lucid Air must be a pretty good car... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ...if Musk thinks a Tesla Model S is worth less than one.

  • Competition is good for consumers. And the cheaper electric cars, the more people will buy them. The price isn't exactly in the basic affordable range yet, and of course the value chosen has Musk's expected juvenile behavior. But overall, this is good for consumers and long term is great for the environment.

    • You may have missed it, but this was Musk's plan all along. A good decade ago he's on record saying that he didn't really want to build electric cars, but felt that someone needed to light a fire under the asses of the major car manufacturers. His plan all along was to drag them kicking and screaming a decade or two into the future towards electric cars.

      And now? [wikipedia.org] New electric models:

      2018
      Hyundai Ioniq Plug-in
      Mercedes-Benz GLC 350e 4MATIC
      Karma Revero (updated version of the Fisker Karma)
      Jaguar I-Pace

      2019
      Ford Escape PHEV
      Hyundai Kona
      Subaru Crosstrek Plug-in Hybrid
      Kia e-Niro
      Audi e-tron
      Mercedes-Benz EQC
      Porsche Taycan

      2020
      Toyota RAV4 Prime
      Tesla Model Y
      Ford Mustang Mach-E
      Polestar 2
      Kandi K23 and K27

      What's the chance we'd have half of those models if Tesla hadn't broken the 1m electric vehicle barrier early this year?

      This was Musk's plan all along. For all his faults, he's successfully dragging us into a future where we're not dependent on fossil fuels for vehicle travel.

      • If this was Musk's plan "all-along", why is he trying to kill a competitor, which is neither large, nor traditional, gasoline-fueled car maker?

        Nah, this isn't an attempt to "light a fire" under the ass of anyone major.

        This is a very obvious attempt to strike at this competition, which the short reach of the Tesla factory owner can strike.

        • Fourteen years ago:
          https://www.tesla.com/blog/sec... [tesla.com]

          • If you're trying to make a point, you better make your point with a short quote and not a link to a wall of text.

            Again, why is Musk applying predatory pricing against a small direct competitor instead of, as the GP claims, "lighting the asses" of some nebulous "large car companies"?

            Nobody has time to wade through the pages of drivel that you link to.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Calydor ( 739835 )

              Because this isn't Musk himself setting the price point, but the accountants working for Tesla the company. They may well have aimed for 69,500 and Musk then went, "Hey, if we're THAT close to a number people giggle about, let's cut another 80 dollars."

            • It's not predatory pricing unless it's below the cost of production. Musk sucks in many ways but there's nothing wrong going on here other than normal reaction to competition.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by dcw3 ( 649211 )

          Consider that this competitor in particular is run by his own former employees. There's likely plenty of resent, which I could certainly understand. If what you're implying was the case, wouldn't he be trying to corner the market against all competition?

      • Missing in the list (Score:5, Insightful)

        by DrYak ( 748999 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @02:52AM (#60609038) Homepage

        You forfot on your list:

        A decade ago, or so:
        Renault and Nissan have products already on the road.

        Tesla isn't the only company which has been successful with electric car for quite some time.
        It's just that they chose the top down approach (build a luxury Roadster supercar first, and progressively build cheaper car from that point onward), whereas the other companies started bottom up (build city cars, and increase range with new models), mostly due to difference in market (more dense cities in Europe and Japan vs sprawl in the US) and consumer mentality (Europeans would appreciate a more compact car that is easier to park and get around in older cities with narrower streets. Meanwhile, no USAmerican would want to be caugh live in anything smaller than a SUV).

        • To be honest, the top down approached worked better to kick start the revolution.

          Nissan and Renault had some success with their Leaf and Zoe, but it was limited. Ordinary people were reluctant to pay $30k and more for a cheap commuter-only car with a range of less than 100 miles that would cost ~$15k if outfitted with a gasoline engine.

          It was much easier to get people that were in the market for premium cars to shell out $50k to $100k for a 250 miles range, high performance electric that could be used for r

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dj245 ( 732906 )
          Not only that, but gasoline in the US is roughly 1/2 the price of most other countries.

        • Meanwhile, no USAmerican would want to be caught live in anything smaller than a SUV).

          Other than the fact that they risk getting literally caught.

      • What's the chance we'd have half of those models if Tesla hadn't broken the 1m electric vehicle barrier early this year?

        Probably 100% since it takes longer than a year to develop a car. You are right but I think Telsa has done something far more fundamental. Car companies aren't afraid of Tesla, not with their incredibly small sales. But Tesla has shown governments that an alternative is workable. This in turn has started them down a road regulating ICE slowly out of existence.

        It's no longer a question of competing with some electric startup, it's a question of future right to sell a product at all. We can thank Elon for pro

      • Re:This is great for consumers and the environment (Score:4, Informative)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @06:14AM (#60609256) Homepage Journal

        What's the chance we'd have half of those models if Tesla hadn't broken the 1m electric vehicle barrier early this year?

        Pretty good I'd say. The main driver has been lowering fleet emissions limits in Europe and the US, to the point where even hybrids are not cutting it any more. Additionally Nissan/Renault proved that there is a decent market for affordable EVs, and SK/LG really pushed down battery prices with their pouch cells. Meanwhile BYD and other Chinese manufacturers proved the viability of commercial EVs like busses and trucks, with some Chinese cities having only EV busses for 5 years now.

        What Tesla did was make high end EVs desirable. A bit like Apple did with tablets, they existed before and were becoming a thing but didn't capture the mainstream attention until the iPad got hyped up. We probably wouldn't have seen some of the higher end models without Tesla but the affordable end where Tesla doesn't compete, the Kona, eNiro, Zoe, MG ZS EV, Leaf, e, Mini Electric, Ioniq, eSoul, ID.3, eGolf, eUp, 500e, e-208, Corsa-e, Bolt, Citigo, Smart, Mii, that new Mazda, BMW i3 etc. would be around without them.

      • What's the chance we'd have half of those models if Tesla hadn't broken the 1m electric vehicle barrier early this year?

        Very good actually. With battery technology improving dramatically and the push to eliminate fossil fuels and the internal combustion engine it was inevitable.

        Even then, the other car companies are not really going in all the way just yet because the market still isn't there. GM tanked their EV back in the 1990s because it only sold several hundred thousand cars. It was ugly as shit though and had shit for range. Never the less, the other car companies need a much larger market potential before they commi

    • Competition is good for the consumer, therefore blatantly obvious attempts at predatory pricing with the goal of destroying the competition should be scrutinized immediately and thoroughly. I mean, it is even in the article:

      This model is critical to Lucid’s success.

      It would be a shame to let a wannabe racketeer who started his business with a ginormous government gift to do strike this obviously the very competition that the government is supposed to foster and protect on the behalf of its citizens.

  • I prefer TechCrunch's title of Elon Musk tweets the Model S will be priced at $69,420, because he’s a child. https://techcrunch.com/2020/10... [techcrunch.com]

    • I prefer TechCrunch's title of Elon Musk tweets the Model S will be priced at $69,420, because heâ(TM)s a child. https://techcrunch.com/2020/10 [techcrunch.com]...

      Sex is used to sell everything, especially everything car-related. Using effective advertising strategies isn't childish.

      Musk may be childish, but this isn't proof of that.

  • They are overpriced. This is why competition is good.

  • ..as in 5 times the out-the-door cost of my 2019 econobox I bought almost a year ago. Now sure, you could say it's sour grapes because a $70k car is so ludicrously beyond my budget that it's not even an option, but I honestly don't think I'd consider being that frivolous with my money unless I was earning Silicon Valley CEO/rockstar/drug dealer money. If I was in a position in life where I owned my dream home, had most of my travel bucket list checked off, and helped out some of the needier members of my

    • This whining is like getting your panties in a twist that a Mercedes S-Class costs near $100k, while ignoring that you can get a C-Class for half that price, and could happily live with a used, loaded Camry.

      What's your point?

      If you're unable to afford anything but a used Civic, why are you bitching about Teslas? Might as well bitch about Mercedes, Porsche, Lamborghini, and Aston Martin.

      Yes, there are cars in the world you can't afford. You thought the internet needed to know that why?

      • Might as well bitch about Mercedes, Porsche, Lamborghini, and Aston Martin.

        And how frequently have you seen any /. stories about those other car brands? Those are unapologetically luxury cars, not sold under any kind of pretense that you must be an awful person who hates the environment if you choose not to buy them [slashdot.org].

        Tesla draws my ire because they're a luxury car brand that sells virtue signaling, rather than just owning the fact they're an expensive car for well off folks [consumeraffairs.com] and leaving it at that. Though, I suppose if they did that they'd have to also own up to the fact their car

    • Now sure, you could say it's sour grapes because a $70k car is so ludicrously beyond my budget that it's not even an option, but I honestly don't think I'd consider being that frivolous with my money unless I was earning Silicon Valley CEO/rockstar/drug dealer money.

      A $70k car doesn't require a CEO or drug dealer income. With a 72-month loan, it's under $1100 per month. I'm a software engineer, and I could afford it pretty easily if I wanted to, though it would cut into my charitable donations.

      • I'd generally caution most folks against borrowing unnecessarily against a depreciating asset. There are a lot of things that can and do go wrong. Especially if you borrow $70k as opposed to, say, the $15k which is the biggest (and only) car loan I ever took out.

        Now, people with much less income than we have as software engineers may have a difficult choice. The $30k car they might afford if they borrow is likely to cost a lot less to operate than the $5k car that might be the best they can do without a

        • That's true, there is some risk. On the other hand, though, you can easily earn more in returns than you pay in interest if you take out a loan and invest the money you would otherwise pay up front. My current car loan is only 3.2%.
    • For ~3x the price of a nice "normal" sedan, most people would expect a reliable, well-built vehicle with things like straight, properly-aligned body panels and a functional infotainment/MFDs.

  • "This pricing wasn't done on a whim and a joint," (Score:3)

    by Fippy Darkpaw ( 1269608 ) on Wednesday October 14, 2020 @09:41PM (#60608560)

    It would be a lot cooler if it was.

  • Surprised Musk is Even Noticing Them (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tempo36 ( 2382592 ) on Wednesday October 14, 2020 @10:04PM (#60608596)

    When Lucid's cars are actually on the street and not just showing up at media events then maybe have a price war with them. Right now, Lucid can announce their pricing to be whatever they want it to be. They're not delivering vehicles, so they can announce pricing to be whatever they want and it's meaningless. I can announce I'll sell houses for $50, but until I actually have to start doing so and making good on that promise by buying materials and building the homes, it's just an arbitrary number.

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by Mr. Dollar Ton ( 5495648 )

      You obviously don't know what predatory pricing is and how it is used to kill off your competition in every stage of its existence. This isn't a wink to the customer, this is Musk signalling investors in the electric car market to stay away from his turf.

      And since we know how willing the government is to take action and how thorough this action is even in the most egregious cases of market power abuse, it is basically an outright attempt to destroy that company.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by bgarcia ( 33222 )
        Predatory pricing? Nah, this just means that competition is coming, and Tesla is going to have to give up a chunk of its incredibly large profit margin to be able to compete. They basically matched Lucid's price for base versions of their luxury car. That tends to happen when you have two items that compete directly in a free market.

      • I would say that Lucid hardly even qualifies as a competitor. They haven't started shipping cars, and the cars aren't even as good as the Tesla for a similar price. They don't have a proven track record of making dependable cars. Say what you will of Tesla's dependability record, but at least they have some hard data and a history to go off of. Lucid has yet to ship a single car so we'll see how well they fare in the real world. At this point it makes very little sense to buy one unless you are in a fina

        • Lucid won't be a competitor for Tesla for quite a few years, its initial offerings are way up market from a Tesla. I don't know how you can claim they are not as good as a Tesla when its base model is not even due for a few years after their first luxury car has come off the production line sometime next year. Tesla is a decent car at a luxury price, Lucid is a luxury car at a very luxury price.

        • It doesn't matter what your opinion of Lucid cars is, or how you look at them. What matters is the way Musk is treating them, and he's quite obviously treating them like a real competitor and trying to influence stakeholders in the Lucid car business with a tactic that is most definitely a part of the arsenal of a budding monopolist or a monopolist wannabe.

    • Re:Surprised Musk is Even Noticing Them (Score:4, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Thursday October 15, 2020 @06:18AM (#60609264) Homepage Journal

      Are they due for another grant cut soon? It gets cut as they sell more cars.

      The Model 3 price cut also announced recently is probably more in response to cars like the VW ID3. A lot of people have been waiting for that and apart from some software issues it's apparently a very good car. The base model is 10k less than the base Model 3 in Europe and very competitive on spec and performance.

  • Lucid is a beautiful car. hope they make it. (Score:3)

    by Wild_dog! ( 98536 ) on Wednesday October 14, 2020 @10:22PM (#60608636)

    It would be nice to have another really nice electric car company.
    Now we just need more plebian electric cars that more people can afford.

    • Now we just need more plebian electric cars that more people can afford.

      The battery is the limiting factor in an EV's price.

      Here around in Europe, which is more densly packed, cities are 15km appart and where 60km gets you already quite somewhere, we've been having cheaper options for quite some time, mostly coming from Renault and Nissan.
      (I personally used to drive a Zoe from the local car sharing for quite some time).

      But in the US, where it seems that "just fetching some groceries at the corner" involves driving for half an hour until you reach a mall in the middle of nowhere

      • Yeah, I don't get the American/Canadian fascination with everything being so far apart. And I say that as someone who lives in Canada. I only live 15 minute drive from work (although I usually bike, it only takes 20 minutes) and there's 5 grocery stores within a 10 minute drive of my house. I picked this location specifically so I wouldn't have to spend my entire life driving. Many people seem to have this idea that having a yard that's a little bit bigger or an extra bathroom will make up for having to s

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ghoul ( 157158 )
          You picked the wrong moment in time for this comment. With work from home and school from home we are 4 people stuck at home with 2 bedrooms. Sure Apple headquarters is walkable for me but my colleagues living in the boondocks are having the last laugh. Distance to grocery doesnt matter if you are only shopping once every 3 weeks, pantry space does.

  • nice

  • Price cuts are quite usual late in a product cycle. The Model S is now an 8 year old model, with its facelift in 2016, 4 years ago. Its tech and manufacturing methods have been superseded by the Model 3/Y, even leading the the call to manufacture a "long" version of the 3. At the price point of the Model S other manufacturers have better models (though the fanboys will surely disagree).

    I hope this means a Model 3mk2 will be announced in the near future. This will show Tesla is more and more capable of churn

    • The Model S is now an 8 year old model

      No it's not. The Model S is a current year model. You're thinking about Telsa like a traditional car manufacturer. You can't really do that at all. They act more like a startup with a development cycle like Windows 10. The Model S you get delivered to your door today is different than the Model S develiered to some other guy 9 months ago, different to the one before that, and before that. In many cases it's impossible to distinguish precisely what Model S you have without pulling it apart and starting to lo

      • The shipping Model S might be an updated version of the 2016 car, but it still looks the same and drives the same for the most part. Even Tesla can't install some software updates and a motor update on an existing model and call it a brand new car and have most people believe it.

        Also, with all the battery technology and manufacturing improvements that Tesla demonstrated during Battery Day, it seems fitting that they can cut the price of the car and still make a good profit on it.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jiriw ( 444695 )

          That it still looks the same and drives the same is a testimony of the fact that Tesla is 'somewhat' good in giving a consistent consumer experience while continuously upgrading their products and their production lines in a 'rapid development cycle'-ish environment. Something no other car manufacturer has even thought about trying. Tesla doesn't do model years.
          The obvious example to mention is the Model Y mega casting which reduced the number of rear chassis parts from 70 to 2 ... and then to 1. And that

          • That it still looks the same and drives the same is a testimony of the fact that Tesla is 'somewhat' good in giving a consistent consumer experience while continuously upgrading their products and their production lines in a 'rapid development cycle'-ish environment. Something no other car manufacturer has even thought about trying.

            Wait, what? Every automaker updates their cars to some degree almost every year. It's very common for a specific model to get minor performance improvements every year or two as they improve tuning on the powertrain.

          • That it still looks the same and drives the same is a testimony

            They don't. The cars have changed (improved) in handling, range and performance in between actual model revisions. The good thing is it hasn't gotten worse.

        • The shipping Model S might be an updated version of the 2016 car

          Drives the same? Tell it to the people who magically found out their computers can't get the updated autopilot because their computers weren't as powerful. We're not talking about software update here. We're talking about actual hardware changes in the car that pretty much no other car manufacturer makes outside of model update every few years. Hell man in 2017 the car got inexplicably more powerful and had updated performance stats on its website, to say nothing of the batteries and range which seems to in

  • Lucid has 13 cameras plus other sensors like radars .. which provides much better front and rear cross traffic visibility which is critical in many urban driving settings. That means their full self driving has the ability to be better than Tesla's. I think the only thing they may need that Tesla has is the data and software engineers to develop the software aspect. On the other hand, Tesla is locked into its current hardare becasue all the training data has been from the hundreds of thousands of cars it cu

    • Lucid has 13 cameras plus other sensors like radars .

      Tesla has had radar since 2014 [tesla.com]

      I think the only thing they may need that Tesla has is the data

      Which is only the most important thing of all by a vast margin...

      If better sensors (with more dynamic range) are added who knows how the software would handle it,

      Anyone who knows how to normalize image data?

  • I don't want a car without buttons/dash and only a 12" screen, I don't want 13 cameras and sensors, I just want a regular car, says a Corolla, remove ICE/tank and put motor/battery, change the RPM gauge with a battery gauge, that's it, touch nothing else. This exists?

    • Of course there are. For instance, Hyundai makes the Kona electric, and Kia makes the e-Niro.

      I drove the Kona, it's not very different from another gasoline Hyundai, same familiar dash. Yet it's got that nice electric drive feeling with quiet, strong torque, quick acceleration, and regen breaks. Costs less than a Tesla and it comes with 400 km / 250 mile range in real life. Well, YMMV ;)

      • Still that's $37K for the Kona. When electric cars have 200+ mile range with air conditioning going full throttle for $20K wake me up.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hawk ( 1151 )

      >change the RPM gauge with a battery gauge,

      err, why?

      Do Toyota's not have fuel gauges now?

      (But then, the "R" instead of "E" on a VW fuel gauge was because they didn't used to have one, but instead a reserve "tank" with the last gallon that you could turn a knob inside to activate. That's why you see the huge indention on the fuel tanks even in the later bugs that had the gauge . . .)

      hawk

  • because that's like 40k more than what I can spend on a new car....
  • I sense a disturbance in the force. It's like 10 Slashdotters ejaculated, all at once.

  • Tesla. The car made by a man with a PhD in jr. high humor.

  • for that much money I can buy ICE cars from now until I die, and take advantage of "charging stations" everywhere.

  • Secret, proprietary software with spyware and remote kill switch that owner can't disable? No thanks at any price.

  • When it hits $25k, I'm so there!

Slashdot Top Deals

I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

Close