Tesla Model S: Elon Musk, a lover of dumb jokes, says that the Tesla Model S cost $ 69,420
Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday cut the price of the company's flagship sedan Model S for the second time within a week. He revealed the price reduction in a tweet that said: Gauntlet has been thrown! The prophecy will be fulfilled. The price of the Model S will change to $ 69,420 tonight!
Musk said that as Lucid Motors today announced "the gauntlet has been thrown down", its upcoming luxury electric sedan, Lucid Air, will start at $ 77,400. That version of the air will come with 480 horsepower and a range of 406 miles at a time. It is nearly four miles higher than the Model S Long Range Plus, which recently received a US Environmental Protection Agency rating of 402 miles.
The announcement via tweet followed pricing news from Lucid Motors, an electric vehicle start-up led by former Tesla exec Peter Rawlinson.
Lucid revealed Wednesday morning that the base, or “elemental” version of their forthcoming Lucid Air electric sedan would cost $77,400 -- or $69,900 after a U.S. federal tax credit worth $7,500.
It’s a negligible difference, but Musk appears to be keeping score. Lucid Motors is run by Peter Rawlinson, the former lead engineer on the Model S, and Musk appears to be closely tracking his former employee’s various announcements. The day before Lucid Motors was set to unveil the Air, Musk huffed on Twitter that “Rawlinson didn't design Model S” and appeared to downplay his rival’s accomplishments. For his part, Rawlinson has said his goal with the Lucid Air is to “surpass my last one, the Model S.”
Musk’s intention to slash the Model S price to $69,420 calls to mind other times the Tesla CEO’s juvenile sense of humor got the better of him. Without rehashing the entire experience, which we documented in detail over the last year, Musk paid a steep price for that tweet, including his chairmanship of Tesla’s board and a $20 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In 2018, he tweeted that he was planning on taking Tesla private at $420 a share, “funding secured.”
The Model S has been languishing a bit at Tesla.
Tesla delivered 15,200 units of both Model S and Model X last quarter — down from 17,400 during the same period last year and down from 27,660 vehicles (14,470 Model S and 13,190 Model X) back in the third quarter of 2018. The automaker has been delivering fewer Model S sedans as it shifts its focus to the more mass-market Model 3 and Model Y.
The Model S has also been dropping in price prior to Musk’s tweet. The Long Range Plus version went from $74,990 to just recently $71,990, according to Electrek. And the Performance trim level went from $94,990 to now $91,990.
The Tesla Model S, which the company has been delivering to customers since 2012, boasts an EPA-rated range of 402 miles per charge. Lucid has projected that the base model of their sedan will deliver an EPA estimated range of 406 miles per single charge.
The announcement via tweet followed pricing news from Lucid Motors, an electric vehicle start-up led by former Tesla exec Peter Rawlinson. Lucid revealed Wednesday morning that the base, or “elemental” version of their forthcoming Lucid Air electric sedan would cost $77,400 -- or $69,900 after a U.S. federal tax credit worth $7,500.
Lucid has projected that the base model of their sedan will deliver an EPA estimated range of 406 miles per single charge. The Tesla Model S, which the company has been delivering to customers since 2012, boasts an EPA-rated range of 402 miles per charge.
The latest Model S price cut represents another 3.5% off for prospective U.S. customers. The Model S purchase price dropped earlier in the week in the U.S. from $74,990 to $71,990.Credit Suisse analyst Dan Levy wrote in a note on Wednesday that “A full quarter of lower price sport price down in late May,” was a negative for Tesla near-term.Prices have dropped in China recently as well.
According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, Tesla deliveries in China amounted to 11,329 units in September, lower than its August sales numbers, but a number that put Tesla in the top three “new energy vehicle” makers, based on sales there.
GM, via its joint venture with SAIC in China, bested Tesla Model 3 sales in China in August with sales of their electric micro car, the Hongguang MINI EV, which costs around $5,000.
Tesla is currently distributing between 477,750 and 514,500 electric cars worldwide in 2020, according to Musk's recent guidance at the company's annual shareholder meeting. It was previously targeting delivery of at least half a million vehicles.
Tesla reported delivery of approximately 318,350 vehicles in the first three quarters of 2020. To reach its original goal, Tesla would have to deliver more than 180,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter. To reach its low-end target, the company will need to supply a record number of 159,400 cars in the fourth quarter of a year, with auto sales reduced by the covid-19 epidemic.
The company will be “hard pressed” to hit 500,000 deliveries for 2020, Credit Suisse Levy predicted, but concluded: “We would expect investors to look through it, as the longer-term growth narrative is intact.”
