I wish that people were that rational. It would make all sorts of things in business life a whole lot easier.

But the reality is that they aren't.

For this model of Tesla, you have to wonder what kind of buyer $10k matters to that much, especially considering the hit that range takes.

If you're already paying 80 or 90k for an electric car, does making it $10k cheaper make much of a difference to you? Range is almost incidental; probably most Tesla owners most of the time (I would guess) won't miss that extra range.

At the very least, it will be a good test of the price sensitivity of Tesla buyers. If they are looking to ship more units, this is a good way to figure out how to do it. My guess is it won't really matter much.

It's about $100/month in additional loan payments, with 10% down and a market rate loan. Will that make a difference? Eh, unknown, likely not.

This does make sense however, if the range of the car can later be upgraded, and, it still uses the entire battery, and just cuts out at a higher % charge than the full range battery would as that'll make it last even longer.

Also, many people are surprised to know that even a full range tesla does not use 100% of their pack capacity. It always leaves some in reserve for the sake of prolonging battery life, so this move really isn't too strange, and the benefit of manufacturing a single battery pack likely drives costs down more than having to manufacture bespoke battery packs for each and every variation.

Thanks for the laugh!

... oh, you're serious.

OK, this is categorically untrue and observably so. 1) One could write a book on consumers buying things or entering into deals that are long-term bad for them but have some combination of short-term convenience / affordability vs. long-term ill effects.

2) In this specific instance it's bad for consumers because Tesla is buying the same amount of raw materials, driving those prices up, and then not actually making them accessible to the user.

3) This assumes that other products that "don't do that" will be available, rather than a common pattern of Vendor A doing a consumer hostile thing, and then all other vendors following suit. I'd point to airlines as exhibit A in this regard. Sure, if Delta does something crappy people might look to Southwest instead ... until Southwest copies Delta due to shareholder demand that they extract maximum profit.

It's bad for all consumers, even if you don't buy a Tesla. It encourages other manufactures to software lock hardware you own. Soon there won't be any alternatives, I choose to object now.

If it is software locked before you buy it, you don’t own it. When you do buy at the lower price point you are consenting to that trade.

If I paid for it and it's in my possession, I own it and will do what I like with it including rooting the software. If that's not possible I won't buy it. In any case I'll always advocate to others not to give money to companies that behave in unethical, rent seeking ways that hobble your rights as a consumer.

> will do what I like with it including rooting the software

On a safety-critical, public-endangering, federally-protected vehicle? Good luck with that attitude.

Hobbling the battery with software has nothing to do with safety and definitely is not federally-protected.

Most of people don't care and will buy, and this will destroy the market, because other automakers will follow this rotten path

The rotten path of selling the consumer a vehicle they want at a lower price?

If the consumer is prohibited from circumventing those limits on their own property, do they really own it?

Looking at the Apple iPhone that places plenty of limits on all their consumer's devices, I think that ship has already sailed. And then there's plenty of people that defend those limits whenever it gets brought up.

You are assuming everyone is a rational consumer.

Economics say we can't do that.

People will continue to buy Veblen goods because people have been tricked into thinking it will raise their social status.

That is the view of a lot of 20 somethings that haven't seen how people really work yet.