While new technology products are typically expensive when they're introduced and then see price decreases as the technology matures, yesterday's price drop is considerable and could have a huge impact on current customers, by lowering future re-sale prices.
The X 100D we purchased last summer is now $15K cheaper. The S 100D we purchased 2 years ago is now $18K cheaper.
While this was inevitable, Tesla should do something for customers who purchased vehicles in the last few years, that will likely see a quick drop in the value of their Tesla vehicles.
Since Tesla is pushing hard to achieve and sustain profitability, they won't be able to provide cash refunds to those customers, however there are several things they could do that wouldn't have much financial impact.
For recent vehicles (all S/X 100D's - the current Tesla S/X models), Tesla could activate software-limited features, at no charge. This will cost Tesla little or nothing, and since those customers had already decided not to purchase those upgrades and likely wouldn't purchase them anyway. This would include activating EAP, FSD and vehicles with 72A chargers software limited to 48A. For the FSD activation, those owners should be charged for the HW3 processor upgrade in order to take advantage of the FSD activation, but that would still be much less than the cost of activating FSD after delivery.
And for the affected customers, Tesla should provide a credit on a future S/X purchase if their current S/X is used as a trade-in (less the value of the software activations).
While this program will reduce Tesla's revenue for future S/X sales, it might also encourage those owners to purchase more expensive S/X vehicles for their replacements, than going to the less expensive 3/Y models.
With all that Tesla announced yesterday, it's not surprising they didn't take into account the large impact this will have on current owners, essentially reducing future re-sale by 15% of 100D's purchased in the last 2 years. And if enough owners press Tesla about this, perhaps they will do something to reduce the negative impact of yesterday's announcement on their current owners.
In addition to the significant price decrease, they also have a potential problem with owners who purchased EAP and not FSD, since they've replaced EAP/FSD with AP/FSD (AP is now only TACC plus AutoSteer; NOAP, AutoPark & Summon are now part of FSD, likely because they decided those features need HW3).
The X 100D we purchased last summer is now $15K cheaper. The S 100D we purchased 2 years ago is now $18K cheaper.
While this was inevitable, Tesla should do something for customers who purchased vehicles in the last few years, that will likely see a quick drop in the value of their Tesla vehicles.
Since Tesla is pushing hard to achieve and sustain profitability, they won't be able to provide cash refunds to those customers, however there are several things they could do that wouldn't have much financial impact.
For recent vehicles (all S/X 100D's - the current Tesla S/X models), Tesla could activate software-limited features, at no charge. This will cost Tesla little or nothing, and since those customers had already decided not to purchase those upgrades and likely wouldn't purchase them anyway. This would include activating EAP, FSD and vehicles with 72A chargers software limited to 48A. For the FSD activation, those owners should be charged for the HW3 processor upgrade in order to take advantage of the FSD activation, but that would still be much less than the cost of activating FSD after delivery.
And for the affected customers, Tesla should provide a credit on a future S/X purchase if their current S/X is used as a trade-in (less the value of the software activations).
While this program will reduce Tesla's revenue for future S/X sales, it might also encourage those owners to purchase more expensive S/X vehicles for their replacements, than going to the less expensive 3/Y models.
With all that Tesla announced yesterday, it's not surprising they didn't take into account the large impact this will have on current owners, essentially reducing future re-sale by 15% of 100D's purchased in the last 2 years. And if enough owners press Tesla about this, perhaps they will do something to reduce the negative impact of yesterday's announcement on their current owners.
In addition to the significant price decrease, they also have a potential problem with owners who purchased EAP and not FSD, since they've replaced EAP/FSD with AP/FSD (AP is now only TACC plus AutoSteer; NOAP, AutoPark & Summon are now part of FSD, likely because they decided those features need HW3).