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Wednesday January 21, 2009
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In a troubling sign, Tesla Motors has effectively raised the price of its all-electric Roadster sports car by at least $6,700, Autopia reports, a move that the company says is necessary for survival.
The increased pricing affects not only new customers, but specifically the 400 who have already placed a deposit on 2008 Roadsters that haven't been delivered. Those customers must now pay thousands extra for features they thought were included in the original deal, according to the report, even though some had already placed deposits of up to $50,000. The biggest change is that the "high-power connector," which recharges the car's lithium-ion battery in as little as three hours, is no longer included. Now Tesla wants an extra $3,000 for it. Without the high-power connector, it takes up to 37 hours to charge the car. Other options, such as Bluetooth, navigation, and metallic paint all have higher prices as well.
"That's ill-advised," said Eric Noble, president of the auto-industry consulting firm The Car Lab, in the article. "Your first buyers are your emissaries. Treat them wrong and all the advertising in the world won't cure it. It's just bad marketing." Aaron Bragman, an IHS Global Insight analyst, said in the report that hitting customers up for more money after they've put down deposits is highly unusual. "They're probably a lot closer to the edge than they want you to think."
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January 21, 2009 9:37 AM
WHO CARES BECAUSE OF THE ECONOMY I DONT EVEN HAVE THE FUNDS FOR A USED PIECE OF CRAP.
January 21, 2009 10:55 AM
Tesla was told by the US Govt. that they have such a bad business that they are not going to get funded. Tesla is just doing this as a last ditch attempt to get the federal loan before they go out of business. There are no "other investors", they have asked everybody from Dubai to Sand Hill Road and everybody has turned them down because they screwed up their decisions so bad already. Musk has the money and Musk screwed the whole thing up. His staff should revolt and demand that he put the rest of his cash in the company.
January 21, 2009 11:19 AM
The nail in Tesla's coffin is the fact that the battery pack puts out enough EMF radiation to give you plenty of cancer. Their pack is equal to strapping a bag of cell phones to your head. This was a known problem with the GM EV1 and they fired the engineers that complained about it.
January 21, 2009 3:12 PM
oh Betty, let's not trot out the pseudoscience, shall we?
Anyway, this is actually a shame. Tesla had a strong product to market, and a lot of publicity and market awareness around their concepts and planned products as well. I mean the Tesla Roadster earned rave reviews on Top Gear for goodness sake.
If Tesla capitalized on some of the positive publicity and press, moved their product to market (while keeping its product high quality), then I think they'd have a chance. I'm worried they're too used to being a dark horse so they're acting like one. That's not how market leaders emerge.
January 21, 2009 3:26 PM
Tesla is NOT increasing prices on options because it is desperate for cash; the company announced a $40 million financing round in November that covers operational expenses. Rather, options pricing changes increase Tesla's per-unit margins on every car delivered for the next several months. This makes the company more attractive to future rounds of investors -- whether they're shareholders, venture capitalists or the federal government (in the form of low-interest loans). Ultimately, this difficult but necessary decision -- which was not made lightly -- helps ensure the long-term viability of Tesla, which is in the best interest of our customers.
Rachel Konrad
Tesla Motors Inc.
February 27, 2009 4:55 PM
Betty Lee,
I've put this to the test with an EMF detector, which reads 100 milligauss in the vicinity of my iPhone during a call.
In my Roadster, the only place with appreciable EMF flux appears to be right above the headrest, where the meter registers around 50 milligauss for a couple seconds during peak acceleration, or about half as much as a cell phone. At cruising speed, the reading drops to 3-4 milligauss there, and to imperceptible levels throughout the rest of the cabin.
In other words, the kinetic energy of the Roadster is a far greater concern than the electromagnetic energy :)
-Ben
Roadster owner #108