Why is this a problem? In all luxury cars there are some options priced much higher than the actual cost (e.g. fancy wheels). They exist to bolster the car maker's margins and help sell the lower end versions at lower prices, so you and the average buyers profit. Nobody actually needs Ludicrous, so pricing it like this is in no way immoral.
It's a problem because they are claiming it's a "$20,000 value" when it was sold for $5000 in the recent past and even right now, it costs far less than $20K in other countries.
I'm a huge Tesla fan (I have an S and an X already) but every time they distort the truth in such an obvious manner, it significantly erodes my trust in them. Case in point: I really like the 2020 Roadster's specs but Tesla/Musk have stretched the truth one too many times for me to put down the $50K deposit until it ships and I've let others find the first bugs.
It's only $20k in the US, and as other people have mentioned... it doesn't seem to have been $20k until this press release.
If you have no problem with that, then no worries. ;)
They should charge $15,000 for the first "10% faster" and then another $25,000 on top of that for the second 10%.
Hardly. Ludicrous Mode is all about acceleration and it's one of the few things that you can use every day without breaking any laws. People are almost never going to go over 100MPH on any US highway but all of them will need to accelerate from zero to sixty during their drives.
Which is fine. If you want to pay thousands of dollars for something that has no other purpose than to put a smile on your face, go ahead -- but that is clearly a luxury purchase and there is nothing wrong with charging a luxury price for it to anyone willing to pay that much.
Easy seen as such too. Compare the "Ludicrous Mode" for the Model X on the US website (US$20k) to the same thing on the Australian website (AUS$8.5k):
https://www.tesla.com/modelx/design?redirect=no#battery
https://www.tesla.com/en_AU/modelx/design?redirect=no#batter...
Note - you need to select "Performance" on the right side, for Ludicrous Mode to be shown.
Ludicrous mode is "20% faster acceleration" for both. So it very much seems like the extra cost on the US buyers is to match this marketing update.
That thing where Larry Ellison (Oracle) is now on the board of Tesla. This is the kind of crap he'd very much applaud. :(
https://www.tesla.com/en_AU/modelx/design?redirect=no#batter...