Musk: "Cybertruck pricing and specs will be different, but it will be a damn fine product."

[Tinker71]

We're doing basic math.

1. Their launch prices were a range just below the Y.
2. The prices would have included four years of 2% inflation at minimum.
3. Their prices target a 30% margin above that.
4. Hence, prices shouldn't change by much.

The demand and specs will be different m so the prices will be different, sure. We knew that from day two when he said the tri-motor would come first because demand, then last year said that'll be a quad-motor.

That's a different truck. But it's not the Model S.

-Crissa

Good point on 1. Tesla should have thought about that a little bit more in 2019. The cost per range mile was so low back then in comparison to their other products. This is worth looking deeper at.

So 2 years of > 6% interest premium. That could be considered substantial.

I think Tesla needs to expect their margins to come down as the competition improves and copies stuff that Tesla is doing. I would bet that the CT was figured at 20% or less. Again already baked in.

It all comes down to your definition of much and substantial. Maybe justifiable.

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[Tinker71]

Wasn’t sweet gig growing into that way of life. Canadians were not allowed to buy a refrigerator in 60’s Canada. So my family would load one into the fishing boat under tarp to take up to our Ontario host where we fished on the Red River above Lake of the Woods.
Canadians aren’t wealthy by American standards when fourth richest is the FORD dealer in Calgary. That is what makes Canadians more friendly, homogeneous in contrast to have-have not America where healthcare plays as a health for wealth transaction. Canadians for most part all have a common shared narrative right down to the healthcare in which they all suffer equally.
To be sure, Canadians snowbird to locales few Americans can afford or enjoy but that’s the distinction. Canadians get together over drinks call up an air carrier(Canadian) ask how much to charter a whole plane to Panama. Americans who would not find that many friends are left paying retail high season rates to fly off to the Caribbean are few. So Florida and Disneyworld punch their tickets.

I worked in Canada in 2016. Their economy was good and they appeared to have time and money to do things. They lean a little more socialist as you say so more rules to protect the lower middle. Sometimes clumsy but well intentioned.

 

[ED_SFO]

Let's be real...A 65k dual motor with 350- 400 miles in this market is amazing. No other vehicle let alone truck with adaptive suspension and electric with this capability...minus the bull shit markups as other oems...it's a deal.

 

[jcryer3]

In my opinion, given the backlog of orders, Tesla should be able to nail their supply chain pretty tight and keep the price reasonable. I suspect that all reservations will be required to up the deposit to say $1,000 in order to finalize the build. I think it is going to be a game changing vehicle.

 

[Alpine]

Let's be real...A 65k dual motor with 350- 400 miles in this market is amazing. No other vehicle let alone truck with adaptive suspension and electric with this capability...minus the bull shit markups as other oems...it's a deal.

Ford did the smart thing by taking Lightning ordering in-house and out of the dealers hand. They knew their dealer network would give the brand a black eye with their gouging

 

[bdmridgeback]

What shit do you have to go through in a Tesla? I have a Y with a hard liner in the truck. I don't think I've had to put up with anything extreme if at all.

Ever have your Y set in cruise control and had it try to turn down a set of railroad tracks while driving 45 mph when crossing tracks?

 

[rr6013]

I cannot find any reference to that in history.

-Crissa

Funny… Canadians acknowledged just couple days ago that same story. I’ll ask around. There couple snowbirds yet wintering through yet.

 

[ED_SFO]

I think 65k is a good figure for dual motor without much options...he might price at 70k if the IRA bill passes.

 

[CyberGus]

Man, it must be Canadians bash on US citizens week or something. Damn, missed that on our calendar
I mean wow. Peace and love huh?
.
So I decided to look it up.

Why Canada is known for peace?

Canada's lead role as a peaceful nation is due to the consistent devaluation of internal conflict and violence, resulting in the promotion of unity, interpersonal harmony amongst its citizens, and sustainable development. This attitude is what made it the ideal destination for people worldwide.

Really? Hmmm. That’s not the energy I’m getting.

‘Merica

 

[rr6013]

I cannot find any reference to that in history.

-Crissa

Here’s a ref:
Canada implemented cost prohibitive tariffs on imported electrical appliances.

It wasn’t banned in early 60’s, just extremely expensive until ~ 1980’s.

 

[Throwcomputer]

‘Merica

They are just geese up there.. until they cross the border.

 

[FutureBoy]

The price setting methodology you mention is basic Econ 101. Business is much more complicated than that. There are all sorts of other factors and methodologies. On the sale price side, the "what the traffic will bear" is just the max price that will still allow the product to sell in an efficient market. Sure that would be nice. But if a new company is trying to take market share from an established company, they will often lower the price (even considerably, potentially even unprofitably for a while). Then there are ways to increase the price beyond what the market would normally accept through the use of price fixing or monopolization. Or prices can be externally manipulated by lobbying government for higher or lower taxes, grants, subsidies, etc. Also, patents can be used to give a company extra pricing advantage by preventing the use of a technology or allowing licensing of the tech at higher or lower prices. And if a company has some sort of platform advantage, they can also force other businesses to have higher costs through platform taxes or even ban other companies or products from even being sold. On the materials cost side, there can also be long term contracts that keep prices artificially low or high. Beyond these I'm sure there are still many more techniques.

Tesla for instance has recently been raising prices in order to slow demand. That would certainly indicate that they are most certainly not setting their prices at "what the market will bear". Instead, they have some reason for keeping their prices much lower than "what the market will bear" and have just been raising those prices recently to slow demand. With wait times still about 1 year out on many products, they clearly are still not at the level of "what the market will bear".

I have seen a variety of explanations as to why Tesla has lower prices than "what the market will bear". But independent of the reasons, it seems pretty clear that Tesla generally keeps their prices considerably lower than what they could maximally charge. And yet they still have a much larger margin than the rest of the auto market. And going forward they are creating even more technology that will allow them to considerably lower their costs even more. Giga castings are an example of this. But think of what Optimus will do to the build costs. At the same time, they are creating other technology that has a serious potential to vastly increase the potential prices of vehicles. Think of full blown FSD here. I get that many people think that $12,000 is expensive at the moment. But if FSD allows you to get rid of your own vehicles, auto insurance, maintenance and instead use robotaxis for dirt cheap prices, how much cost would a robotaxi company pay for the ability to run their company without any drivers? Don't think of what YOU would pay for FSD. Unless you are creating a robotaxi company, YOU are not the one who would be purchasing vehicles in this scenario.

It would not surprise me at all if Elon's comments about the prices being different are technically correct but mean something completely different than what most people are debating here. If you look at autos long term (say 20 years out) they will most likely be priced MUCH lower than they are now even with inflation. Somewhere along the line, there will be a max average price of autos that will then begin to fall. Are we close to that price yet? Hard to say. My guess is that max average auto price will come some time around when Tesla has their 10-12th giga factory on line and producing at full swing. But if Optimus advances quickly, it might come even sooner than that.

Then there are other factors like the predicted death of big oil and the almost certain death of big ICE auto. I would bet that in the challenges that big oil and auto face, they will not go down without even more of a fight. I would bet that things are going to be messy for a while.

So what are the prices of the CT going to be? If anyone knows it is Elon and he is not yet saying. But there is a pretty good chance that even he doesn't know yet what the actual prices will be on the day that the first customer CT's start getting built. His announcement that the prices will be different just tempers our expectations a bit so that he is more free in the end to set whatever price he wants. But given Tesla's history, you can pretty much bet that the price will be much lower than "what the market will bear".

 

[TheLastStarfighter]

Here’s a ref:
Canada implemented cost prohibitive tariffs on imported electrical appliances.

It wasn’t banned in early 60’s, just extremely expensive until ~ 1980’s.

A fridge was not extremely expensive in Canada in the 60s. The terrifs were smaller than the price increase Elon wants to slap on the Cybertruck and everyone had a fridge. What… too soon?!?

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