Pricing strategy

[jcryer3]

My approach would be to initially price the Cybertruck competitively to keep the momentum and excitement. You can gradually raise prices as improvements, options, and backlog grows. It is the most anticipated vehicle in the industry. Manage the market and customer loyalty; the brand will grow the price such that it becomes a huge revenue generator. Just my opinion.

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[Rutrow]

My approach would be to initially price the Cybertruck competitively to keep the momentum and excitement. You can gradually raise prices as improvements, options, and backlog grows. It is the most anticipated vehicle in the industry. Manage the market and customer loyalty; the brand will grow the price such that it becomes a huge revenue generator. Just my opinion.

I too have been concocting reasons why it would make sense for Tesla to keep the price low, but I realized that my logic was biased by motivated reasoning. It only makes sense for ME! It gets ME, MY truck inexpensively, but it hurts Tesla's bottom line. The excitement will remain plenty high and the backlog will NEVER be larger than it is right now. Sure, there will be some folks whose enthusiasm will take a hit if they get priced out of buying one because it comes out higher than the reveal night price, but if they're real fans of CyberTruck they'll instead get excited about new ways to make their budget fit the new price.

I've resigned myself to accepting what's best for the company, even at the risk of making Crissa mad for me telling Elon I'm willing to pay more. ?

 

[Baldey]

It only makes sense for ME! It gets ME, MY truck inexpensively, but it hurts Tesla's bottom line.

wrong. you aren't being selfish. its not just you, its everyone like you. Which is most people, and elon knows this. Thats why the push for affordability.

Tesla's bottom line does not matter if they can not produce an affordable mass-market product. their mission statement would not be met. It should be all about the customer, investors can go suck on rocks (and i am both)

 

[SlegMD]

November can’t come soon enough, so we can get past this topic, and focus on semantics and optimization of the truck for aftermarket.

 

[HaulingAss]

I too have been concocting reasons why it would make sense for Tesla to keep the price low, but I realized that my logic was biased by motivated reasoning. It only makes sense for ME! It gets ME, MY truck inexpensively, but it hurts Tesla's bottom line. The excitement will remain plenty high and the backlog will NEVER be larger than it is right now. Sure, there will be some folks whose enthusiasm will take a hit if they get priced out of buying one because it comes out higher than the reveal night price, but if they're real fans of CyberTruck they'll instead get excited about new ways to make their budget fit the new price.

I've resigned myself to accepting what's best for the company, even at the risk of making Crissa mad for me telling Elon I'm willing to pay more. ?

Suggesting that its best for the company to jack the price up the most for the earliest deliveries seems to ignore the fact that there are over a million people, all in the same reservation pool. Everyone in the same reservation pool deserves to pay the same price for the same trim. Sure, when Tesla gets to the reservations made when there was no price associated with the reservation, they can raise the price if it makes sense to do so.

Back in 2017/2018 when Tesla started deliveries of the Model 3, Tesla was in dire financial straits. They had spent most of their cash getting the Model 3 into production and had the opportunity, and the motive, to price gouge. The fact that they resisted doing that, and even sold some $36K Standard Range Models near the peak of their financial crisis, shows they are unlikely to price gouge now, when they have the strongest financial standing of any company in the entire auto manufacturing industry.

When the Cybertruck pricing is revealed, and it's reasonable, the people who have been projecting Cybertruck pricing in the stratosphere will quietly pretend like they were never certain that pricing would be stupid high, they will carry on as if nothing happened, and take pot-shots at whatever new things they think most damage Tesla's good reputation and ability to sell Cybertruck at high volumes.

 

[Rutrow]

Suggesting that its best for the company to jack the price up the most for the earliest deliveries...

That's not what I was suggesting at all. As a shareholder I want Tesla to price it's vehicles at a level that, in the long run, they'll make a reasonable profit from them. OP seemed to be suggesting that Tesla ought to price the early deliveries at a price too low to make a profit* just to keep up enthusiasm, THEN slowly ramp the price to a profitable level later, pretending that it's due to "improvements and options"

As an early reservation holder I don't want to pay more, or even less, than the folks farther down the queue. Give me a fair price, and give the same to everyone else.

*I know that early VINs are gonna cost more to build than VINs later in the ramp, so the unit cost needs to amortized over the first million sold

 

[Gurule92]

Pricing thread blackout is complete!

But yea everyone else has brought out their trucks as low as they could be and then raised the prices. Would make sense.

Raise prices right after I get mine and blow up the queue at the same time.. free for all

 

[CyberGus]

*I know that early VINs are gonna cost more to build than VINs later in the ramp, so the unit cost needs to amortized over the first million sold

The first truck built will cost about $3B, they get significantly cheaper after that

 

[Rutrow]

The Performance Model Y was $61k , but that's still $52*k.

*before IRA credit

 

[newwave1331]

Based on Elon's projection of cybertruck ramp, we could possibly only see about 3,000 trucks in the first half of 2024.

On Nov 30th, announce competitive pricing that will be used once the ramp is starting to gain some momentum in the 2nd half of 2024. For the first 3,000 trucks, open an auction on Tesla.com that all reservations holders have access to (24hr per vehicle auction). Each week, a new list of vehicles hits the website depending on how many are being produced that week. If you win, you can pick it up from Austin and get a factory tour. If you can't pick it up, it will be shipped to your local service center in a couple weeks.

Tesla maximizes profits going to them rather than flippers and you don't have to scare many on November 30th with limited supply pricing.

 

[Rutrow]

Incorrect.
withholdings don’t matter. Tax return or taxes due in April don’t matter. If line 16 of your 1040 is greater than $7500, you can get the credit. (unless your income is above the limit).
Look at last year’s tax return to see what your tax liability normally is. Even if your withholdings have been more than your tax due, so that in April you get money back, or pay a few hundred or a few thousand, that isn’t “your tax liability”. Line 16 is the key! (generally, talk to your CPA)

 

[cvalue13]

it will come Jan. 1st

 

[HaulingAss]

My advice: Don't become a tax accountant. Whether you have sent the money to the IRS or not never matters. The IRS will always cut the taxpayer a check if they have over paid and the taxpayer elects to not apply it to the next year's tax liability.

You seem to exist for the sole purpose of throwing shade on Tesla, Elon Musk and the Cybertruck. Everything you say about this revolutionary vehicle makes me think you are under the illusion you can discourage people from getting one of their own. My observation is that people don't listen to you and you add zero value to this forum. And seeing how many things you say that are just flat out wrong, I think that's justified.

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