Honestly, I think we probably have to walk away from the profit margin conspiracy theories. Its just too easy to disprove. FSD is 100% profit margin for them and they do not appear to be giving priority to FSD cars. Also in general, while there are some outliers they don't appear to be giving priority to newer orders over pre-refresh prices. The Plaid has priority over the LR. While I don't like it (and especially to the extent they appear to be taking it... I could see a 3 month difference, but not the 6-9 month difference) I sorta get it. For LR 6 seater has absolute priority because they aren't doing 5 and 7. I don't think that has to do with profit margin as I assume the profit margin on the 7 is better than the 6.
If you want to argue, to me the best argument's are:
1) Tesla knowingly sold cars to people (pre-refresh) which were no longer being manufactured, and a price they knew they wouldn't honor and with a delivery date they knew they could not honor.
2) Tesla "upgraded" a series of 5/7 preorders to 6 seater for an additional cost with a promise of delivery by end of the year, they did not meet this deadline in many cases and no longer appear to be taking this promise seriously, even though they will be taking peoples money
3) Through the X fiasco Tesla has repeatidly provided extremely optomistic to knowingly false delivery estimates to customers, and continue to do so.
4) Tesla has failed to proactively communicate with model X orders, and when the customer contact them little to know information is given.
5) Tesla currently has a large number of people who have been waiting over a year for a car that was promised to them in 2-3 months, and not as a pre-order but as part of a routine production build. In many cases right now the best Tesla is willing to do is "Maybe July". Pre-refresh people were promised to be in a priority queue and get the "first ones out" and clearly this is not the case. Clearly a year (and looking at 18 months) is not acceptable... does Tesla acknowledge this situation and are they doing anything specific to remedy it and when should these people expect their cars?
6) It is not clear Tesla is commited to the 5/7 seater LR configuration short, medium or long term. The expectation of most is they are kicking the can down the road hoping the "3 seat bench fairy" arrives before they burn through a reasonable number of 6 seater backlog, at which point they will force 5/7 seater customers to the 6 seat configuration. Is Tesla committed to full-filling 5/7 seat orders in the short term, and if so when should we expect them. If not, when will Tesla be informing customers they need to switch, and will they raise prices on the 5 seater people to "upgrade" to a configuration many find inferior.
No need for conspiracy theories on profit margin... the above are much more damning. Its not about profit, its about neglect.
