BEIJING - Tesla Inc has dropped the standard-range variants of its Model X and Model S from its product lineup and adjusted prices across its range, in a sales push that comes days after the US electric vehicle maker reported record deliveries.
To simplify its offerings, the automaker on Tuesday limited variants of its Model X sport-utility vehicle and Model S sedan to "Long Range" and the more expensive "Performance." It also trimmed the price of its now entry-level Long Range variants.
The discontinuation of the standard-range variants, however, means a rise in starting prices - to $84,990 for the Model X and $79,990 for the Model S, excluding potential buying incentives.
Tesla also lowered the starting price of its mass-market Model 3 to $38,990.
"To make purchasing our vehicles even simpler, we are standardizing our global vehicle lineup and streamlining the number of trim packages offered for Model S, Model X and Model 3," Tesla said in a statement.
"We are also adjusting our pricing in order to continue to improve affordability for customers."
Earlier this month, Tesla said global deliveries of its three models in the second quarter of this year rose 51 percent from the previous quarter to a record 95,200 vehicles. The Model 3 accounted for about 80 percent of the total, underscoring the vehicle's role as the linchpin of Tesla's growth strategy.
The automaker said it expected production and deliveries to continue growing in Q3.
In China, the world's largest market for electric vehicles, Tesla's changes on Tuesday pushed the starting price of its Model X to 790,900 yuan ($115,068) and Model S to 776,900 yuan.
Tesla is building a factory in Shanghai where it initially plans to build Model 3 cars. It is taking orders for those China-made versions, which have a starting price of 328,000 yuan.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
HAWTHORNE, California -- Tesla introduced a new electric sports utility vehicle slightly bigger and more expensive than its Model 3, pitched as an electric car for the masses.
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk showed off the "Model Y" late Thursday at the company's design studio in the southern California city of Hawthorne, and the company began taking orders online.
The all-electric Model Y has a starting price of $39,000 for a version with a 230-mile (370-kilometer) range. A long-range version of the SUV capable of traveling 300 miles (483 kilometers) on a single charge was priced at $47,000.
Deliveries were expected to begin late next year for the higher-priced Model Y vehicles, with the standard-range version likely get to buyers by spring of 2021, according to Tesla.
Musk said the Model Y has "the functionality of an SUV but it will ride like a sports car" accelerating from stand-still to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds.
Model Y featured a "panoramic glass roof" and could seat seven people, according to Musk.
Entry-level SUVs are a hot segment of the vehicle market.
"Even though the Model Y will debut with promises of grandeur, if there are any chinks in Tesla’s brand armor, this vehicle will expose them," said Edmunds executive director of industry analysis Jessica Caldwell.
"Tesla is about to learn exactly what it means to go head-to-head with the German automakers."
While Tesla has a devoted fan base, with people at the Thursday event shouting enthusiastically for Musk, the Model Y will be competing with attractive SUVs that titans such as BMW, Mercedes and Audi are bringing to market, according to Caldwell.
POSSIBLE TURNING POINT
The latest addition to the Tesla line-up comes shortly after the California-based company rolled out its lowest-priced Model 3, an electric car designed for the masses, at a base price of $35,000, with deliveries promised in one month.
At that price, the Model 3 is less than half the cost of most Tesla on the road and may be eligible for tax incentives which could further lower ownership costs.
"If Tesla truly wants to be a mainstream brand, it's going to have to figure out how to sell cars to people besides young men in California," Caldwell said.
Tesla has a sound foundation for the Model Y to be a "turning point," since it has an enviably young base of buyers for a luxury brand and the Model X has had strong appeal to women, according to Caldwell.
The new vehicles suggest Tesla has been able to overcome production bottlenecks to ramp up production to meet demand, and moving toward Musk's goal of making electric vehicles widely available.
Tesla this week reversed course on its decision to move most of its sales online, saying it will keep many of its showrooms open -- but will need to hike prices to do so.
Tesla made the announcement on Feb. 28 that it would begin selling its mass-market Model 3 at the promised $35,000 price, and close most of its retail locations to cut costs.
But the company said that after review, it had decided to keep some of its showrooms, although the specifics were not disclosed.
Tesla said the price hikes would start on March 18 for "the more expensive variants of Model 3, as well as Model S and X."
"To be clear, all sales worldwide will still be done online, in that potential Tesla owners coming in to stores will simply be shown how to order a Tesla on their phone in a few minutes," the statement added.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
WASHINGTON - The US National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday it was "unhappy" that electric car maker Tesla Inc made public information about the crash of its Model X vehicle on Autopilot that killed the driver last month.
The agency "needs the cooperation of Tesla to decode the data the vehicle recorded," NTSB spokesman Chris O'Neil said in a statement.
"In each of our investigations involving a Tesla vehicle, Tesla has been extremely cooperative on assisting with the vehicle data."
"However, the NTSB is unhappy with the release of investigative information by Tesla," he added.
A Tesla spokesperson declined to comment.
The board's reaction to Tesla was first reported by the Washington Post Sunday evening.
O'Neil was responding to Tesla's announcement on Friday that the Tesla Model X involved in the crash had activated its Autopilot system moments before the March 23 mishap.
The driver, 38, died at a nearby hospital shortly after the vehicle hit a concrete highway divider near Mountain View, California. The mishap involved 2 other vehicles.
"The NTSB is looking into all aspects of this crash including the driver's previous concerns about the autopilot," said O'Neil.
"We will work to determine the probable cause of the crash and our next update of information about our investigation will likely be when we publish a preliminary report, which generally occurs within a few weeks of completion of field work."
Last week, the company said that a search of its service records did not "find anything suggesting that the customer ever complained to Tesla about the performance of Autopilot. There was a concern raised once about navigation not working correctly, but Autopilot's performance is unrelated to navigation."
In its announcement on Friday, the company said that shortly before the crash, the vehicle's "Autopilot was engaged with the adaptive cruise control follow-distance set to minimum."
Autopilot allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel for extended periods under certain conditions. Tesla requires users to agree to keep their hands on the wheel at all times before they can use Autopilot. Users, however, routinely brag they can use the system to drive hands-free.
In its Friday statement, Tesla also said vehicle logs from the accident showed no action had been taken by the driver right before the crash and that he had received earlier warnings to put his hands on the wheel.
The statement did not say why the Autopilot system apparently did not detect the concrete divider.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
