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I just received this email from Tesla. Most of this information has been posted here before, but the limited availability of the 2008 production slots becoming available I thought was new... Along with the 2010 pricing.

Sales & Marketing Update

>From Darryl Siry, SVP Global Sales, Marketing & Service

Hello. I wanted to write to provide our customers with sales, marketing and service updates for the Tesla Roadster. I will cover the following topics:

Customer deliveries
Powertrain 1.5 switchover
2010 model year pricing and availability
Limited availability of 2008 model year Roadsters

Customer Deliveries

These are exciting times for Tesla as we begin delivering cars to customers. The process of signing papers to finalize a sale is oddly similar to a traditional car company sales transaction – with some distinctions, given Tesla’s unique position in the industry.

For example, by law we must print out your final bill of sale on a long, carbon copy form, and we even have to use an old dot-matrix printer for the job. It’s a strange thing to hear the printer spitting out ink – it’s such a throwback to a different decade -- but I’ve grown to like the sound: It means we’re delivering yet another car.

Then there is the “Monroney Label,” the prominently displayed, black and white window sticker with fuel efficiency data. The label’s format is prescribed by law, so ours looks pretty familiar, but with a Tesla twist: Where you normally see “miles per gallon,” our label specifies “kilowatt hours per 100 miles.”

Seeing this is quite a novelty for our customers. But we’ve grown comfortable with our newfangled label and the entire sales process, having delivered 27 Roadsters so far. It’s great we’ve had time to practice because we are about to increase the pace of deliveries significantly. In total, over 50 vehicles have been started on the line and the number is about to accelerate.

Powertrain 1.5

In our press release on Tuesday, we shared some great news. Our announcement to the media intentionally avoided the jargon we have come to know as “powertrain 1.5,” but the gist of it is simple: We have completed the transition to the new setup and will be inserting the new powertrain as planned into our production process. With that milestone achieved, our production rate has increased to 10 cars per week and will continue to increase in the coming months.

The new transmission, which will be manufactured by BorgWarner Inc., is durable, reliable and extremely efficient. The most recent mileage test on the EPA combined cycle yielded a result of 244 miles on a single charge -- a 10% improvement over the last test with the previous drivetrain.

The driving experience is vastly better. With about 30% higher torque on a single gear ratio, it feels like taking off in a rocket. You keep waiting for the torque to run out -- but it doesn’t. Just last week I had a journalist in the car and he kept saying, “I keep waiting for the shift!”

To be blunt, the latest Roadster is superior in every way to its predecessor, and our team of engineers did an extraordinary job in a very short time. If you loved the Roadster before, you’ll be blown away with the new setup.

2010 Roadster Pricing and Availability

With a small number of production slots remaining for the 2009 model year, we have started planning for the switchover to the 2010 model year. Our plan is to switch in the fall of 2009, as is customary. As a result, our 2009 model year run will be limited to a maximum of 600 units, similar to our production run for the 2008 model year. (The actual number may be smaller depending on the precise date we cut over to the 2010 model year.)

Base price for the 2010 model year will increase to $119,000 from the current base price of $109,000. This price change will be effective immediately for reservations taken after we have filled all remaining 2009 production slots. We have been going through the process of offering 3Q09 production slots to our waitlist customers to give them priority access to these remaining slots at the 2009 price, then the slots will be offered on a first come, first serve basis until the end of the 2009 model year production run.

If you have been considering reserving a 2009 Tesla Roadster, please contact your sales consultant soon or visit the reserve page on Tesla Motors.

Special Availability of 2008 Model Year Roadsters

As we ramp up production and increase deliveries to our 2008 model year customers, we will offer a limited number of 2008 model year production slots. We know that many people appreciate the historic significance of the 2008 Roadster and want to purchase and take delivery as soon as possible. However, we are still limiting the total production of 2008 model year vehicles to 600.

These slots will sell at a base price of $125,000, reflecting strong demand for the first model year. The slots currently being made available will be added to the end of the current list of reserved 2008 Roadster customers, currently scheduled for March production, but will have the 2008 model year VIN designation.

We will allocate these slots on a first come, first served basis. If you are interested in this offer, please contact Doreen Allen, National Sales Manager, at [email protected] or 650- 413-6231.

In closing, we are all very excited that we have cars on the road, the enhanced powertrain entering production, and our production rate increasing. I am also hard at work on establishing showrooms in New York, Miami, Chicago and Seattle, but I will provide an update on that separately. I encourage you to visit the owners’ forum on the Tesla website and keep an eye out for more news on our progress as we deliver cars to customers.

Thanks,

Darryl Siry
SVP Global Sales, Marketing & Service
 
Thanks for passing that along. I found this part interesting:
...we have started planning for the switchover to the 2010 model year. Our plan is to switch in the fall of 2009, as is customary.
Yet they'll still be making "2008MY" cars in March of 2009. Though I understand their reasons for not doing so, I still think they should have made the model year switch over after the Sig100.
 
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I find it interesting that the base price in the US is going up by $10,000 when I am sure I read elsewhere that the European roadsters will drop by €10,000 after the initial 250 have been sold.

I know the global supply of carbon fibre is an issue, but I wonder what has prompted this?
 
Though I understand their reasons for not doing so, I still think they should have made the model year switch over after the Sig100.

And do what exactly to avoid the wrath and lawsuits of all the buyers who placed large deposits to contract for a first model year Tesla? As you can see in the email above Tesla Motors now is asking $125,000 for a car several hundred slots after the one I paid for in 2007. At that time I was supposed to get my car this year but I am still waiting, and I am willing to wait a bit longer knowing that my car is now worth quite a bit more then what I paid for it. I know many first year buyers would not be willing to have their signed agreement for a 2008 Tesla altered after taking a rather significant risk with a large deposit for so long.
 
I find it interesting that the base price in the US is going up by $10,000 when I am sure I read elsewhere that the European roadsters will drop by €10,000 after the initial 250 have been sold.

I know the global supply of carbon fibre is an issue, but I wonder what has prompted this?


I'm also curious about this, but I wouldn't bet much on that the Euro version will fall much in price. That's what they originally said, but I'm guessing they'll just quietly keep on selling the Euro Roadster at the Signature Euro Edition price...

Cobos
 
Last news i think i heard was that over 1200 Roadsters had been sold. With 600 MY 2008 and them limiting MY 2009 to 600 seems to me that they should have already started selling MY 2010. Unless some of the 250 European models are included in the 1200 total. Eiether way MY 2010 is very close. I think the switch in models years is a wise choice. Puts them on schedule with the rest of the world and keeps everyone at the MY they bought. Seems very logical to me.

Now only question remaining is when can I order my MY 2010 Whitestar. I still refuse to use Model S.
 
And do what exactly to avoid the wrath and lawsuits of all the buyers who placed large deposits to contract for a first model year Tesla?
Yes, you're right. Like I said, I get it. By labeling those cars MY2008, they have a higher value. Just that it all seems rather arbitrary.
In the same vein they could go ahead and call all the US 2009 cars as MY2008, then switch to MY2010 in Fall of 2009 (as they've already planned), thus skipping MY2009 in the US (kinda like what happened to the 1998 Miata). In a way that makes more sense because AFAIK the 2008 and 2009 cars are identical. Then "2008" would in fact describe a model.
At any rate, I don't have a strong opinion about this. And as you've demonstrated those who've actually paid money may. :smile:
I'm just mentioning what seems more logical to me. But in the end, these are marketing decisions that have their own kind of rationale.
 
I find it interesting that the base price in the US is going up by $10,000 when I am sure I read elsewhere that the European roadsters will drop by €10,000 after the initial 250 have been sold.

I know the global supply of carbon fibre is an issue, but I wonder what has prompted this?
I'm also curious about this, but I wouldn't bet much on that the Euro version will fall much in price. That's what they originally said, but I'm guessing they'll just quietly keep on selling the Euro Roadster at the Signature Euro Edition price...

Cobos
I believe those Euro Sig250 are supposed to be "fully loaded," as it were. And that €10K price drop was to reflect the base price. So to get an equivalently optioned car, the price may very well be similar if not more. So I guess as with the US cars, there's a lot of value in buying in early. The continual price increases probably reflect that the car is more expensive for them to build than they had anticipated. You would hope that with the production ramp the price for the consumer would stabilize if not fall.
 
Yes I know Doug and what I'm afraid Tesla will do is next year sell the new standard Euro cars with the same price as the Sig250 but not fully loaded, Hence it is a price increase for someone that has been paying attention, but generally wont appear to be. I don't really see any problems as is that the Roadster is increasing in price as I can't afford it anyway, but if that is indicative of the Model S pricing I care. Which goes to show that I really care the most about my own problem :)

Cobos
 
I got the same email but I didn't notice it at first because Mail thought it was "junk". No offense Darryl !

What I don't quite understand is why they're making only 600 2009 Roadsters. They said they were planning to make about 40 Roadsters per week starting in March, which means that they should be done by the end of June. What are they going to do after that? It doesn't add up. :confused:
 
You would hope that with the production ramp the price for the consumer would stabilize if not fall.
Eventually they'll reach a point where they can't raise the price anymore because sales fall off a cliff. That's when prices will stabilize. Until then, no way... they spent an enormous amount of money developing the car and they need to recover it.

-Ryan
 
What I don't quite understand is why they're making only 600 2009 Roadsters. They said they were planning to make about 40 Roadsters per week starting in March, which means that they should be done by the end of June. What are they going to do after that? It doesn't add up. :confused:
Well two things: First that 600 is probably just US cars. Don't know that we've heard a goal/quota for Euro sales beyond the Sig250 yet, but at 40 Roadsters per week that 850 cars already puts them into August. And second, I think it's because like Darryl said, they want to go ahead and start the 2010 model year in Fall 2009, "as is customary."
 
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Plus i think they have plenty of catching up to do with the MY 2008 and MY 2009 so leaving time at the end to be able to get them all done by Sept is probably a wise thing. Dont forget they have 500-550 more to make with MY 2008 plus 600 MY 2009 to be completed in the next 50 or so weeks. That is an average of 24 per week. Not counting holidays and breaks and ramping up and all. I think what they have set should be a very reasonable goal.
 
Based upon some other conversations I have had with Tesla previously, my personal belief is:

1) 600 for MY 2009 is 600 US only... the 250 Europe is in addition. So with 850 + August shutdown, that pretty much covers next Spring and Summer.

2) The reason that they are not rebranding some of the 2008s as 2009s, or skipping 2009s for 2010 is that people have put money down on a specific model year, and people will probably be upset after spending money on a 2009 and receiving a 2010.

3) I think the fall of the dollar among other things has significantly raised the price of producing the 2008 to the point where they probably don't make any money on it, and maybe not even the 2009s. The raising in price is probably not so much to see what the market can bear as much as trying to make it profitable to continue to produce them.
 
2) The reason that they are not rebranding some of the 2008s as 2009s, or skipping 2009s for 2010 is that people have put money down on a specific model year, and people will probably be upset after spending money on a 2009 and receiving a 2010.
Just to clarify, the alternative I was suggesting was to skip 2009 by continuing to call those cars as MY2008. Practically speaking, 2008VIN600 and 2009VIN001 may end up on the production line on the same day next March. Of course then maybe the current 2008 owners might think the exclusivity of their model year would be diluted, and also Tesla couldn't sell those open 2008 slots at a premium. Anyhow, a short 2009 model year is as good a solution as any.
 
It would seem that Tesla is anticipating pent up demand for the Roadster at a volume of 600 units per model year. Or that Tesla is balacing availability with demand at 600 units for each model year, and uphold the ability to raise prices substantially by automotive industry standards.
 
There are probably some regulations / guidelines that auto industry needs to follow when declaring a vehicle a specific model year. I think it has something to do with the date the chassis was built.
 
It would seem that Tesla is anticipating pent up demand for the Roadster at a volume of 600 units per model year. Or that Tesla is balacing availability with demand at 600 units for each model year, and uphold the ability to raise prices substantially by automotive industry standards.

I had a conversation with some Tesla folks specifically about model years etc. a couple of months ago. My impression is that MY2008 and MY2009 are both "ramp up" years. They plan to sell closer to 2000 per year going forward.

In fact, if you consider that during calendar year 2009 they are going to make the majority of 2008, all of 2009 and some of 2010, they should exceed building 2000/year in 2009 alone, they just won't call all of them by that model.

2008 is just taking care of the old orders, and because production of 2009 starts so late, it is truncated so that that can start 2010 on a more normal model year cycle.
 
If im not mistaken they are trying to produce and finish all 1200 orders for the MY 2008 and the MY 2009 in the next year or so. If so, does that mean starting with MY 2010 are the planning to do 1200 orders each year?