Production X Configuration Has Begun!

[engle]

I was first to post the secret Elon Easter Egg code but it's way up thread now.

Type "charger" no quotes in the configurator to enable hidden 72 amp $1,000 option.

Someone please post on TM forum I'm too busy watching the pre-Thanksgiving house cleaners now. Thanks!

(And my Mom from NJ is nagging me!!). LOL she lives 3,000 miles away for a reason I guess? Ha ha

Hi Tam,

Thanks for your response.

Russ' posting #166 answered my questions regarding whether this was a factory installed option. It is only a factory installed option if you have the "SECRET" PASSWORD.

Larry

 

[BornToFly]

Tesla currently lose $4,000 per car. Porsche makes $23,000 per car. (see Bloomberg Businessweek). I am happy for Tesla to succeed and I am all for competition - they are shaking the market up nicely. But messing about with gullwing doors, weird glass windscreens and crazy seats just distracts from what they should be doing.....building functional electric cars. Elon Musk is a very rich and impressive guy but I think the gullwing doors alone probably cost them 12 months - it's the flipside of having a CEO with maybe a little toooo much vision and not enough worrying about being commercial.

Are you really that bad at math? Tesla has a profit margin around 25% on each car. So it average around $25,000 in profit on each car sold. This year Tesla will make over a billion dollars on the sales of the Model S. It is loosing money because it spends more than that on future development/expansion. To take the money it spends on growth and all operations, and divide that by the money made selling cars, and then claim they lose money on each car is something only a dishonest person trying to distort the truth and manipulate the stock price would do, or a complete moron would do. Which are you?

 

[MrBoylan]

Tesla currently lose $4,000 per car. Porsche makes $23,000 per car. (see Bloomberg Businessweek).

Untrue. Tesla's margin on each Model S is comparable to Porsche (25% to 28% if I recall correctly from the quarterly filings). They just choose to sink all of that profit (and more) into R&D so they can continue to stay ahead of the competition. Saying that "they lose $4,000 on each car" implies that the cost of materials, manufacturing and marketing the car is $4,000 more than what they get from selling it, which is patently false.

Which car is outselling the comparably priced Porsche Panamera in the US right now by a factor of about 3 to 1? Oh, that's right, the Tesla Model S.

2013 data - Tesla Model S Outsold Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7 Series, Audi A8, Lexus LS and Porsche Panamera | Forums | Tesla Motors
2014 data - Luxury Cars Comparison -- Top Sellers In 2014 (USA) | CleanTechnica

With Tesla's huge YOY sales increase in 2015, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Model S vs. Panamera gap double what it was in 2014.

As for 90% of people you know not knowing who Tesla is, well, you live in Germany. I'd say there's probably some small bias there toward BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Audi, etc., and against foreign brands. It will take some time but Tesla will make its mark there too eventually.

 

[FlatSix911]

This is much ado about nothing except for 1% of the population.
I never use Destination chargers while traveling unless I stay overnight.
Always use the Supercharger network while en route ... and it will only get better.

Believe Tesla calls Destination charging that for a reason.
Idea is to plug in your Tesla for a charge while you are at your destination.
Can get a full charge overnight, or just some additional miles (enough to get you to the next Supercharger) while you shop and eat a meal.
Not designed to get you from Empty to Full while you wait around impatiently.
Believe it makes the most sense for people in Canada who have that national high amp charging system in place.
For those where it would specifically make sense for them, then the $1,000 option to upgrade charging is a reasonable option.

Personally, in my experience,
I think getting the chademo adapter instead of the 72 amp option is both a cheaper and faster charging solution.
Personal preference and YMMV depending on where you live.

- - - Updated - - -

Props to 'EVino' for making this excel spreadsheet of pricing: https://my.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/model-x-pricing-options-excel-table

Thanks for posting

 

[Larry Chanin]

Which is fine if you are the only Tesla staying at said destination that night, or eating there for that meal. What if there are 4 Tesla's and only one HPWC that you all have to share and are all expecting a full to empty charge that night? Well, it ain't happenin' is it?

If ALL of the Tesla's waiting to use said HPWC have the 72 or 80 amp chargers they will actually get a resonable amount of juice presuming someone is there to move it from car to car in the middle of the night. If just one car has the 40 or 48 amp, it screws everybody's chances of getting a decent amount of range.

Good point.

Quite a few of the luxury hotel/resort Tesla destinations have a few full capacity HPWCs as part of the valet operations. The combination of high capacity charging with 24/7 valet services provides a sort of mechanical advantage whereby the throughput of charging is maximized.

For example, I have organized a club weekend getaway at the Epicurean Hotel in Tampa. It is a Tesla destination charging location with two full capacity HPWCs. We had over a dozen Model Ss who had traveled from across the state and they NEEDED to charge to get home. There was no problem because of the combination of high capacity charging and someone to swap the cars in and out.

In the future with lots of Teslas on the road, the situation at destination chargers might be similar to our event where multiple Teslas are competing for a few HPWCs. It therefore behoves Tesla to let their new and prospective owners know that instead of hiding options.

Larry

 

[TexasEV]

This is much ado about nothing except for 1% of the population.
I never use Destination chargers while traveling unless I stay overnight.
Always use the Supercharger network while en route ... and it will only get better

This is a good example of Tesla's problem-- California-centric thinking. Not everyone lives in the Land of Superchargers. Their engineers and marketing people really need to get out more, and stop believing their marketing hype about superchargers.

- - - Updated - - -

Believe Tesla calls Destination charging that for a reason.

Idea is to plug in your Tesla for a charge while you are at your destination. Can get a full charge overnight, or just some additional miles (enough to get you to the next Supercharger) while you shop and eat a meal.

Not designed to get you from Empty to Full while you wait around impatiently.

Believe it makes the most sense for people in Canada who have that national high amp charging system in place.

For those where it would specifically make sense for them, then the $1,000 option to upgrade charging is a reasonable option.

No one is complaining that it's a $1000 option. We're critical of it being an option only for those people who know it's available if they ask for it. Instead of Tesla treating its customers like children and saying it's too complicated for most of them to understand so we're going to hide it rather than to try to explain it, they should show the choice to everyone and explain it and let buyers make a decision yes or no about it like adults.

 

[Larry Chanin]

This is much ado about nothing except for 1% of the population.
I never use Destination chargers while traveling unless I stay overnight.
Always use the Supercharger network while en route ... and it will only get better.

With all due respect, hiding available factory installed options is a very dubious way to educate your customers as to what is available to them.

All that many of us are staying is that Tesla owes it to their new and prospective customers to provide the pros and cons of high capacity AC charging, and then let the customers select what best serves their particular situation, now and in the future.

True the Supercharger network will improve, but there will be more than an order of magnitude increase in Teslas on the road in a relatively short time. It is not much ado about nothing to give people options without having to know a secret password. Most new owners are not on TMC to get the secret handshake.

Larry

 

[MikeC]

For what it's worth, it's likely they've made at least 34 Founders Model X at this point, as there was a delivery in Los Angeles this week of VIN F0034.

 

[andrewket]

20" are all season, 22 are summer performance.

 

[eloder]

Reasons for the 72 Amp option to be hidden: Tremendous supply constraints, or tremendous cost increase and they're selling them at a loss.

Reasons that aren't actually the cause behind the hidden option: a bunch of engineers sitting around, giggling about how they're screwing people over by hiding an option.

This isn't exactly uncommon in the auto industry. The smart car I ordered came with a hidden option, not available unless you inquired about it. There were actually dozens of such options available on the car, and some of them were factory-only installations similar to the Tesla charger.

 

[bwa]

I find it lousy that Tesla hid the 72A option. My guess is that there is currently a limited supply of 72A chargers, and that it would cause delays in deliveries if many people opted for the 72 over the 48. This may bite Tesla in the rear if people who didn't know about the "Easter Egg" way to expose the option take delivery of their car, and later discover that it can't take advantage of the destination HPWCs.

Looking ahead, I wonder if those who ordered it but find they don't need it can swap with those who ordered without knowing about it but find they need it.

I just ran the numbers for a place I frequently visit. 48A would charge it in 8 hours. 72A in 6 hours. When I'm there, there's plenty of days I don't get my full 8 hours of sleep before work. I would literally not make it to work and I'd get fired if I lost even an hour of charging time. But I realize I'm unique. There's lots of people that never go that far: my commute is only 49 miles (15 miles is twisty mountain roads about a thousand or so feet). Even if I take my own example, but just remove the weekend travels, then suddenly any Tesla with about "200 miles rated range" which does a full recharge in 10 hours would be just fine (as long as I had a backup ICE), so the 40A would work. Like I said, if I were someone else. So, it's very conceivable there's lots of people out there for which they don't need 72A but got it on a lark and can swap their cars with those who need it. (As used auto sales between private parties, say, or a CPO deal.)

Edit: oops, I forgot about SuperChargers. If I stopped at one of the SC's (there are two that would require different routes and one would be way out of my way for half of my trips but I could get to), then I could grab dinner on the way to my destination and get about 20 minutes of SC speed charging, for only a quarter hour to one hour overall delay, instead of spending money on gas. That's over half of the battery charged mid-route. That would half the amount of time needed to charge at destination, to only 4 hours with a 48A. That would fit in ok with my habits, with only a modicum of changes.


I think I'll leave this post here to demonstrate the OMG reaction a lot of us get when planning our driving if we consider the purchase of a Tesla X or S. It's often full of simple math, and math doesn't lie, but we make calculation errors and just do things wrong sometimes. And one of the calculations in my case is that maybe the 48A would be just fine, as long as I'm grabbing SuperChargers as often as possible for the non-commute routes. If I ever swing an X or S, here I come, Harris Ranch, Manteca, Gilroy & Monterey (Seaside) SCs!

 

[Larry Chanin]

I find it lousy that Tesla hid the 72A option. My guess is that there is currently a limited supply of 72A chargers, and that it would cause delays in deliveries if many people opted for the 72 over the 48. This may bite Tesla in the rear if people who didn't know about the "Easter Egg" way to expose the option take delivery of their car, and later discover that it can't take advantage of the destination HPWCs.

Yes, hiding options from certain people that don't have the secret password doesn't sound like a good way to do business to say the least.

However, even if there were supply problems, (which personally I think is unlikely) there would be a more reasonable solution to a supply issue. Simply tell your customers that there will be a delay if that option is selected and let them prioritize their decision. Tesla has done this numerous times with the Model S with various options. Why wouldn't it be applicable to the Model X?

Larry

- - - Updated - - -

I think I'll leave this post here to demonstrate the OMG reaction a lot of us get when planning our driving if we consider the purchase of a Tesla X or S. It's often full of simple math, and math doesn't lie, but we make calculation errors and just do things wrong sometimes.

There's another way to miscalculate. Some folks are calculating based on past or current history and wait times where there is little or no charging congestion. In the future with 10 times or more than the number of Teslas on the road today the wait times for destination charging or Supercharging may be radically different.

It is not crazy for some people to want to hedge their bets and pay for a little insurance in the form of high capacity AC charging as a means of mitigating wait times.

Larry

 

[antruong4]

Is there any other hidden option available? (I have to confirm my configuration by 12/1/2015) :biggrin:

 

[efusco]

Several posts moved. PLEASE try to stay on topic...even this destination charger discussion should be somewhere else. Let's keep things on the information about configuring and ordering.

 

[Trnsl8r]

Are you really that bad at math? Tesla has a profit margin around 25% on each car. So it average around $25,000 in profit on each car sold. This year Tesla will make over a billion dollars on the sales of the Model S. It is loosing money because it spends more than that on future development/expansion. To take the money it spends on growth and all operations, and divide that by the money made selling cars, and then claim they lose money on each car is something only a dishonest person trying to distort the truth and manipulate the stock price would do, or a complete moron would do. Which are you?

No need to be that harsh I think. The "losing 4000/car" misconception made the rounds because a badly written article was posted at Reuters (not a blog, not Facebook, not Fox News... Reuters... smh) making exactly that assertion while (willfully or ignorantly) ignoring all the facts you just posted.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/10/us-teslamotors-cash-insight-idUSKCN0QE0DC20150810

 

[MX458Dave]

Has anyone mentioned that if you get the 22" wheels, you only get 3500# of towing? Just noticed that on the configurator.

 

[SCModelX]

Well, that should do it. Ordered! Production #14xx. Had to spend 20K more than hoped, to get it sooner (P90D vs. 90D), but I get the reasoning, and I have been waiting 3.5 years already. Done waiting. Ready for the dang, bitchin-world saving- investor enriching, "car"!!! CA delivery. Hoping 4-12 weeks. We shall see (I'm guessing mid January, we shall see!)> Tesla tour Monday. Get your robots started $!%#!%

 

[spentan]

Congratulations on your confirmation.

I'm not gonna lie, the Silver looks too bland for me. I'm going the Pearl white, with the 7 seat config in the colors you've selected.

I was considering the 6 seat config, but the biggest problem is the lack of armrests. I am really really hoping that the 7th (middle) seat in the 2nd row has the flip down armrest like we saw in Elon's car at the reveal.

 

[CarlK]

Not everyone lives in the Land of Superchargers.

Not now but soon it will be.

 

[andrewket]

Congratulations on your confirmation.

I'm not gonna lie, the Silver looks too bland for me. I'm going the Pearl white, with the 7 seat config in the colors you've selected.

I was considering the 6 seat config, but the biggest problem is the lack of armrests. I am really really hoping that the 7th (middle) seat in the 2nd row has the flip down armrest like we saw in Elon's car at the reveal.

I went with the 6-seat, and would love armrests but I know that's not going to happen. I'm hoping that a second row console comes out as an accessory.