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Comment by o10449366 | Hacker News Reader

It's a big deal because the $35,000 price point was Tesla's big promise.

Attaching a specific price to a long term marketing campaign that becomes entrenched in the minds of consumers should be considered an antipattern. It locks vendors into a price point that ignores inflation. This can be tough to break free of when inflation (or tariffs or commodity prices, etc.) inevitably make legacy price points unprofitable. See 5 cent coke[0] and $5 footlong Subway sandwiches[1].

Tesla should be able to raise prices by ~2%/year (the rate of inflation) without it being a big deal to consumers. Hopefully consumers are getting their annual cost of living wage increases at their respective jobs.

[0] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/11/15/165143816/why-...

[1] https://www.npr.org/2019/05/07/721193879/subways-five-dollar...

In fairness, 5-cent coke came about because of an unwise contract in which Coke promised syrup to a bottling company for <5 cents, under the impression that bottled drinks would never take off. The ad campaign followed, from coke (not the bottler selling the cokes), as an attempt to keep the bottler from raising prices, because at that point Coke only profited from sales volume, not increases in retail price.

This only hurt them after they managed to buy back bottling rights, but the 5 cent coke ads had become deeply entrenched.

That, and also vending machines. There was no way to do a slight increase in the price of coke. To go up to 10 cents would DOUBLE the price of Coke. Coke even asked for congress to issue a 7.5 cent coin, but was denied.

More details:

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/01/719213730/episode-416-why-the...

Nobody forced Tesla to push "$35,000 EV" as their rallying cry. They did it because, among other reasons, they saw how successful it was for brands like Apple, which they like to be compared to. The problem is, when Apple announces a new iPad model at $499 (2010-2015), they know they can manufacture and sell profitably at that price.

Tesla on the other hand cannot meet its own production targets, so they shouldn't have tried to publicly anchor their own price at $35k.

Apple also increases their prices regularly. And Apple customers don't mind paying a little more because they believe they are getting a premium product. Tesla has built a similarly premium brand and could similarly increase prices without consumer backlash, if not for the famous $35k Model 3 pitch.

> Hopefully consumers are getting their annual cost of living wage increases at their respective jobs.

There are very few jobs where that is even considered

Do you have any data to back up this assertion?

GMs big ev promise was that it would have real competitors in volt and bolt, that kind of didn't get there.

Which to be honest they should have flat out stated that inflationary pressure had led to raising it and just ate the bad press which would bled off much quicker than forever acting apologist not to customers some of who may move on but instead they were always reacting to influencers and you can never win that game.

I own a LR TM3 and am still happy with it to the point it really sleights my point of view to any gasoline powered vehicle or item. I still think they make the best EV at their price point.

tl;dr

Just be upfront with the price increases and eat the bad press once and quit reacting to influencers and people trying to short the stock

And it still exists, if you read the article.

Edit: Alright I am wrong.

From TFA:

> “Today, in the U.S., Model 3 base prices increased by $400. This price increase applies to all Model 3 variants, including off-menu Standard Range...”

Tesla's promise was that the $35,000 model would be readily available for consumers, not that they would have to jump through hoops to obtain it or that it would simply "exist."

Making a phone call or visiting a store is hardly jumping through hoops. It’s still a thousand times easier than buying a car from a traditional dealer.

I keep seeing this complains about dealers. What exactly is so difficult in buying a car from a dealership. I bought and leased 9 cars in last 5 years, it never took me more than 30 minutes after I picked the car to drive away with it. What exactly is so difficult about it?

Picking the car is a gigantic hassle. Inventory is inconsistent and salespeople are complete idiots.

Once you actually pick a car, then you have to haggle (unless you want to trade money for time and just accept that you’ll get ripped off), refuse the hard sell on a bunch of BS add-ons, haggle again when they try to hand you a final agreement for more money than you previously worked out, and finally leave with your car.

And if you’re very lucky, like I was last time I did this, they’ll go ahead and file a lien on your car even though you didn’t finance it, mildly fucking you over when you try to trade it in years later.

Compare this to Tesla, where you place an order for exactly the configuration you want, the price is laid out for you in advance, most of the paperwork is done ahead of time on their web site, then someone drops the car off at your house, has you sign a few things, and hands you the keys.

I don't hate dealers, but stories like yours are what I think of when people complain about Tesla delivery issues or service issues.

Both of them are really far from perfect.

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