Used Car Dealer Logic ⇥ theverge.com
Adi Robertson, The Verge:
Tesla has seen strong sales of its Model S electric car, but Elon Musk is now hoping to bring in more buyers — and to do so, he’s rolling out a new sales plan that promises to give potential owners a Model S for a mere $500 a month.
Five Benjamins a month? Great. What’s the catch?
Either way, though, you’ll be paying $1,199 a month for the $72,400 85-kWh model, or $1,051 a month for the $62,400 60-kWh one. So how does Tesla get that number down to $543, as it prices the 85-kWh plan? It rolls in the savings you’ll get from owning an electric car. […]
By default, for example, it counts $100 in “time savings” from avoiding gas stations — using the somewhat dodgy metric that you’d spend one hour a month refueling and your time is worth $100 an hour. It also assumes buyers will deduct the car’s operating costs as business expenses, removing a corresponding $227 a month.
April Fool’s Day was yesterday, Elon.