Will a Second Round of Foundation Edition E-Mails go out on 12/15?

[Jhodgesatmb]

On 12/8 a batch of Foundation Edition order invites went out, and by now those lucky recipients have had a week to order or ignore it. Do you think additional invites will go out tomorrow to the next lucky batch of early reservation holders?

I don’t know and, as per usual, the poll maker should have offered that as an option. The biggest plus of the Foundation Series is that the extra cost will scare away enough potential buyers that some with higher reservation numbers might get an offer. The other plus of the Foundation Series is that they have packaged a lot of things that we might want anyway. The minus of the Foundation Series is that some of those things we might not want but are paying for anyway.

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[Jhodgesatmb]

agreed..... I think they want to sell 1000.... make some money, iron out some kinks .....

Some people want to have that distinction of being in the first 1,000 and won’t want Tesla to produce more. This who don’t just want the wait to be over and may be ambivalent about whether Tesla does another round. In fact, it might be easier for Tesla to move into regular production.

 

[Fleetwood75]

I don’t know and, as per usual, the poll maker should have offered that as an option. The biggest plus of the Foundation Series is that the extra cost will scare away enough potential buyers that some with higher reservation numbers might get an offer. The other plus of the Foundation Series is that they have packaged a lot of things that we might want anyway. The minus of the Foundation Series is that some of those things we might not want but are paying for anyway.

Nobody actually knows, that’s the whole point of the poll. It’s about what you predict

 

[CyberMoose]

I think at one point the plan was 1000 units.

I also think that plans change.

and while I personally think the plan has, in fact, changed, at the very least, I don’t think anyone can justify banking on Tesla sticking to the 1000 unit run.

among several reasons for that view: if you were building only 1000 of these units for certain, you would advertise the hell out of that to the people, offered the ability to order. Even Tesla would provide that detail.



They’re already pregnant with that

And, I notice that your two paragraphs are contradictory:



If the Foundation isn’t getting much more value for Tesla (cash or halo), then why *wouldnt* they keep going in early production


again, meanwhile, I know for a fact that at some point before the delivery event the plan was for 1,000, but now I’m pretty sure than plan has changed. (And for the same reasons, could be changed again.)

If nothing else, Tesla not communicating clearly the Foundation run cap, is as clear a sign as anyone should need that they’re keeping their options open if nothing else.


Meanwhile, folks should not loose site of the potential regulatory and corporate financial consequences to Tesla of switching from these limited offer, limited edition, Foundation units instead to generally available normal course retail units.

Because corporations think in terms of quarters and not months/weeks, I’d expect to not see any shift from Foundarion order/deliveries to normal retail deliveries until after the end of a quarter - when Tesla feels ready, from a financials perspective, to realize the balance sheet hit of the historical CT capex/opex.

For these and other reasons, I think the available data best fits the (current) Tesla thinking of only offering Foundation orders/deliveries through the end of Q1 2024. By then they aspire to have enough (not a lot, but enough) production capacity to be more quickly selling/delivering normal retail units during Q2 so as to have revenue to offset the balance sheet hit from turning to true production.

I don't see any reason why the plan would change or why someone would suspect that. Tons of car manufacturers have released limited versions of their vehicles. A lot of the time, they will even put the number that it is right on the side of the truck. Which I'm glad Tesla isn't doing because then I'm sure people would want it just to try to advertise something like "Selling #13 foundation truck" and trying to make lower numbers sound better.

Also I don't think Tesla would advertise the Foundation version a lot...or advertise anything. A lot of features that manufacturers throw on to their cars is usually all piled into the next years model and they make a big deal out of it. Tesla just throws on new stuff and doesn't even tell us half the time. We literally find out about some new things just when customers find them.


And what I am saying about it being limited is that is probably what is making them money and giving them a good reason for that.

Imagine if Tesla just kept the foundation as an option. You pay a few thousand extra and they laser etch a couple things on your truck. If that was the case...who in their right mind would do it? It being limited is what gives it value. You could also argue that getting it sooner gives value, but once again, it's only the first thousand so it's not really much time. like imagine buying the foundation truck but you get the last foundation truck instead of one of the first non foundation trucks. You saved yourself maybe a couple weeks for thousands of dollars.

Now the other side of it where they could literally just say "pay us more money at any time and we will send your truck out first". But that would just get a whole bunch of hate and they really don't need to do that.

There are some ways that manufacturers can do this without as much hate and this is something that Tesla and other manufacturers do and that's supplying higher trims first, or even at levels that exceed demand.

Just like Tesla isn't selling the RWD Cybertruck yet and Ford was sold out of their lowest tier Lightning while the upper trims could be shipped and sold almost immediately.

But I still would like to see why you think they changed their mind on the 1000 foundation units. Because I see no reason to change their mind after like a couple weeks. It also diminishes the value of something being limited for the people who already committed to buying it

 

[Fleetwood75]

I plan to order a fully loaded (every single option and accessory) AWD and to get the Power Share hardware installed on my house regardless of whether I get a Foundation Series or not. If you add up the price of all of those things it’ll be pretty close to $99,999 anyway, so why not just get the Foundation Series and then get it even sooner. I could not care less about the exclusivity of the laser etching and whatnot

 

[cvalue13]

I don't see any reason why the plan would change or why someone would suspect that.

well, that *you* don’t see it isn’t exactly determinative except for your own purposes

seemingly, you might not see it bc you’re still catching up on some things, eg:

Also I don't think Tesla would advertise the Foundation version a lot...or advertise anything.

I’m not taking about “advertising”-advertisinf

I’m talking about eg just mentioning it in the email that is going to people who can order.

because eg

Tons of car manufacturers have released limited versions of their vehicles. A lot of the time, they will even put the number that it is right on the side of the truck. Which I'm glad Tesla isn't doing because then I'm sure people would want it just to try to advertise something like "Selling #13 foundation truck" and trying to make lower numbers sound better.

first, exactly they others note this because a “limited edition” without a number run isn’t as valuable.

second, Tesla’s still do this numbering and people still pay at resale based on numbering (and have done it every time in the past), with respect to the VIN number of the car “selling Model S VIN #4”

Which value of having #4 already but only comes in the back end after piece piece together how many “Signature” series etc were made

and that's supplying higher trims first, or even at levels that exceed demand.

tesla is not doing that here

Not counting the delivery event units, they’ve built a single Cyberbeast (per VIN registrations), but 140 AWDs

But I still would like to see why you think they changed their mind on the 1000 foundation units.

I’d flip this on you and say, I’d like you to show me where Tesla is maintaining 1,000 total first

other than the couple of press leaks based on info from the week BEFORE the delivery event, Tesla hasn’t said or repeated this anywhere, including in emails to people who get to order

which means:

It also diminishes the value of something being limited for the people who already committed to buying it

… it doesn’t diminish the value of anything, precisely because Tesla hasn’t been telling those people that it’s limited to any number


Which was my point

In all, you have your causation arrow running the wrong direction. I don’t need to show you they ARENT planning to limit, so much as you need to show that they ARE planning to.

for what it’s worth, on this forum, I’m one of the main sources of info confirming the prior plan of 1,000

And now I’m telling you I have good reasons to doubt it continues to be the plan.

in that respect, you're effectively saying “I believed you when you said 1000 unit run, but now I don’t believe you when you say that’s no longer the plan”

ok

 

[tenetke]

The foundation is mostly just spending a few thousand extra, after you include the fact that you aren't paying extra for FSD and premium connectivity, for the Foundation text on the truck, the beast picture, and having something that's limited.

To keep it going for too many vehicles, until people stop buying, I think that enters into a world where Tesla will be accused of just letting people pay more to get to the front of the line. You could argue that the first 1000 is already doing that and it kind of is, but at least it's limited to 1000. This allows Tesla to make a few million more, it allows people to show off their "Foundation" truck which doesn't mean much, and we can wait until they find any quality control issues before our trucks are sent out.

For me, the home PowerShare is a great reason for buying the Foundation. Using it with my solar and battery system will be nice.

 

[TECH49]

Now the other side of it where they could literally just say "pay us more money at any time and we will send your truck out first". But that would just get a whole bunch of hate and they really don't need to do that.

This is what Tesla did a year ago with the Model S. While others were waiting around a year, if you ordered a Plaid, it only took weeks. You just had to pay more to cut the line. I know, I did it. It was part of the reason I opted for it.

 

[Fleetwood75]

This is what Tesla did a year ago with the Model S. While others were waiting around a year, if you ordered a Plaid, it only took weeks. You just had to pay more to cut the line. I know, I did it. It was part of the reason I opted for it.

Any regrets? We waited it out for the non-Plaid Model X. Took forever

 

[TECH49]

Any regrets? We waited it out for the non-Plaid Model X. Took forever

No regrets. Which is saying something because I'm pretty sure nobody paid more for the Model S Plaid I got than I did. I know I wouldn't have traded the time with it before the big price drop(s) for the money saved.

 

[Celiboy]

On 12/8 a batch of Foundation Edition order invites went out, and by now those lucky recipients have had a week to order or ignore it. Do you think additional invites will go out tomorrow to the next lucky batch of early reservation holders?

I’m not sure if another batch of invites will go out but we know just from responses in this club not everyone who gets an invite is going to buy a Foundation series truck. It may take time for them to sort out real buyers from those who are still considering and those that are a hard no.

 

[Jackcybertruck]

Strange, I never got an email nor my wife where we both have orders from first minute res 112.....I looked last week or was it 2 weeks ago, anyways, looked at my order under "manage" and saw I had the option to purchase Foundation series. Is everyone waiting for an email?

I check my account every hour just hoping, my res number is 11277 and I live in CA

 

[Fleetwood75]

Welp, looks like 75% of you were wrong ?

Just goes to show, if you think you know you don’t know. This whole Cybertruck thing has been very unpredictable from minute one

 

[DumpsterFire]

Welp, looks like 75% of you were wrong ?

Just goes to show, if you think you know you don’t know. This whole Cybertruck thing has been very unpredictable from minute one

Yeah it’s crazy man. I didn’t think any invites would go out again but then I got one yesterday…. Weird but cool.

like you said, if you think you know, you don’t know….

 

[Cybertruck 1974]

Did anyone really get an email? Or just see they can process Foundation by looking at account? All 7 of mine are open to order Foundation but no emails.

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