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Meme lord and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has declared that the price of the Model S sedan must be both lower than its competitors…and a total joke. Starting tonight, potential owners will pay just $69,420 for Tesla’s full-size four-door, the second time in a week the Model S has seen a significant price slash.
Presently, the Model S Long Range costs potential buyers $71,990. This is after a $3,000 cut was announced earlier this week, and following a separate $5,000 reduction that took place in May. This makes the Model S roughly 10 percent cheaper to buy at the end of the day today than it was at the beginning of 2020.
The news was announced via a tweet from Musk himself, along with a note that “the gauntlet has been thrown down.” While speculative, Musk’s philippic wording comes just hours after rival EV startup Lucid announced its upcoming Air sedan would undercut the Model S at $69,900 (after taking into account the $7,500 federal tax credit), all while promising 406 miles of all-electric range versus the Model S’s 402 miles. And let’s not forget that just last month, Lucid took aim at the Model S’s by boasting about a 9.9-second quarter-mile time.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time Musk has made a reference to this number. He’s also sold shorts for $69.420, followed just 69 people on Twitter (though that number has now increased) and smoked weed on the Joe Rogan podcast. Hell, even his birthday is 69 days after April 20. Presumably, antics like this by Musk and Co. are precisely why Tesla doesn’t feel the need to splurge on traditional advertising.
On a more serious note, Model S and X sales are stagnating. Because Tesla doesn’t release sales figures on each vehicle independently, one might assume the price drop that happened earlier this week speaks to a greater problem with sales volume of the Model S in particular as the Model X did not receive a discount. Meanwhile, Model 3 and Y deliveries have been rapidly ascending, and as Tesla looks to begin deliveries of the seven-seater Model Y variants in the next few months, that number is likely to continue its upward trend.
Between more companies gunning for the Model S’s market share and Tesla cannibalizing its own sales with lower-cost vehicles, the California automaker needs a miracle to keep the Model S relevant in the market moving forward. It might be one of the best purchases for buyers in the luxury EV sedan market right now, but that doesn’t mean it will be in the future without a significant overhaul of some sort.
Tried and true? Sure. But revolutionary? For now.
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