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A comment on Tesla to produce $25K car as early as 2022. Parent comment

Re:Tesla to produce $25K car as early as 2022 by Retric on Saturday January 09, 2021 @05:49PM (#25705842)
Traditionally the competition and thus margins on ultra cheap cars where so low they basically acted as loss leaders to get people into dealerships who could up sell used cars or make it back on repairs. Tesla’s showroom model breaks the benefits of that approach which makes competing at the very bottom of the market less appealing especially as their currently constrained by manufacturing capacity.

It’s different in China where a 250 mile 25k car would still be aspirational for many people. Though the US market might look at a 200 mile range 25k EV with a 300 mile range option at ~30k as a slightly different story with significant upsell possibilities for Tesla.

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Re:Tesla to produce $25K car as early as 2022 by wombatmobile on Saturday January 09, 2021 @06:09PM (#25706052)
The low cost car of the 1970's was a different prospect to the low cost car of 1914.

https://corporate.ford.com/articles/history/the-model-t.html

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Re:Tesla to produce $25K car as early as 2022 by prepend on Saturday January 09, 2021 @05:58PM (#25705942)
This is really false, or was true until Toyota and Honda came in with high profit, low cost cars in the 70s/80s.
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Re:Tesla to produce $25K car as early as 2022 by Retric on Saturday January 09, 2021 @06:14PM (#25706098)
You can get a Mirage starting at $13,995, yet Toyota’s cheapest car comes in at $19,925 a 40% price bump. Companies really do avoid the segment.
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Re:Tesla to produce $25K car as early as 2022 by prepend on Saturday January 09, 2021 @08:03PM (#25707092)
They don’t sell the absolute cheapest, but they sell a lot of low cost cars. They don’t avoid the low cost segment. $20k is low cost these days, even though the absolute cheapest US car is $14k.

Toyota just discontinued its Yaris that was $17k and Honda still sells its Fit for $16k.

There’s a ton of cars to be sold at the $25k level, profitably. The upsell of new versions down the road is just gravy.

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Re:Tesla to produce $25K car as early as 2022 by Retric on Saturday January 09, 2021 @09:20PM (#25708049)
I agree IC cars can be sold for 20k profitably especially when people add options. But that’s starting at a 43% price jump from the ultra low end. However, with current battery prices a 25k EV with decent range is going to need to be cut down with near Mirage levels of options, or be closer to 30k than 25k for Tesla to profitably sell them.

Granted, Tesla could put a 150 mile battery in it but that’s also a major compromise.

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Re:Tesla to produce $25K car as early as 2022 by SECProto on Saturday January 09, 2021 @07:53PM (#25707005)
The Yaris was available for roughly $14k up until a year or two ago (I only know the Canadian price, which was I think $15,900 cad). It was discontinued because it didn't sell well enough.

Similarly, Nissan had the Micra available in Canada up until a year or two ago.

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Re:Tesla to produce $25K car as early as 2022 by Retric on Saturday January 09, 2021 @09:30PM (#25708194)
US Yaris was disconnected in 2020. Even the Mirage jumps 9% this year from 14k to 15,290 in 2021 with a hefty 995$ destination charge.

Companies really have been abandoning this sediment because as I said it’s unprofitable.

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Re:Tesla to produce $25K car as early as 2022 by SECProto on Sunday January 10, 2021 @09:00AM (#25714667)
You say it was discontinued because it was unprofitable. I say it was discontinued because it was unpopular. Neither of us has shown any actual proof one way or the other
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Re:Tesla to produce $25K car as early as 2022 by fomine3 on Monday January 11, 2021 @09:45PM (#25741605)
Those subcompacts are still sold on outside NA so latter is plausible.
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