OK, it may be too much to call the mainstream media lame — it probably doesn’t have the time or money to closely track all of Tesla’s* activities and announcements in a careful fashion. (After all, it’s just a Fortune 100 company disrupting the gigantic auto industry.)
Getting to the story, though, as I wrote two days ago, a top-of-the-line Signature Model X P90D all tricked out costs about the same as a top-of-the-line Model S P90D all tricked out. But when the $143,750 total leaked, some in the mainstream media took that to mean that the Model X was waaaay more expensive than the Model S. (Whoops… unless their aim was to smear Tesla and scare people away from electric cars.)
Before things got “too” crazy, Tesla Godfather, CEO, & Product Architect Elon Musk took to Twitter to set the record straight:
With same options, Model X is $5k more than an S due to greater size & body complexity. Sig Series is fully loaded, hence high price.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 2, 2015
There you go, the price of the Model X down the line will be just $5,000 more than the Model S… which should be expected when you consider that the X is larger, includes falcon-wing (or gull-wing) doors, and includes some spectularious second-row seats.
Apparently, he also had to set the record straight regarding the Model S. I’m not even going to search out what idiotic things were said about that, but it has been known for several years that the Model 3 is the big breakthrough car Tesla has been working towards for years and that it will be made possible with the completion of the Gigafactory. Anyhow, someone wrote or said something stupid, and forced Elon to tweet:
Model 3, our smaller and lower cost sedan will start production in about 2 years. Fully operational Gigafactory needed.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 2, 2015
To clear up confusion or stop speculation regarding initial Model X deliveries, Elon wrapped up his mid-week tweeting thusly:
First production cars will be handed over on Sept 29 at our Fremont factory
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 2, 2015
Would have been nice if he’d hashtagged it #stupidshorts or #stupidmedia. 😀
*Full disclosure: I’m long TSLA, because I think Elon & Tesla are awesome.
+1 they are extremely lame.
Ha… sadly.