Tesla Motors has reshaped the finance offering on the Model S sedan launched last month in the US to a mix of praise and criticism.
Tesla has increased the guaranteed resale value of the Model S from 43% of original value to 50% after three years, extended finance terms from 63 to 72 months and applied the changes retroactively to those who have already purchased a Model S on finance.
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The estimated take-up rate of finance on the Model S is around 20% in the opening month, a figure Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, aims to eventually increase to 70%.
‘We didn’t get it right‘
Musk, who is personally backing the guaranteed future value of the Model S, said the company "didn’t get it quite right a month ago. We received a lot of valid criticism, and we’ve tried to make it a lot better".
The defaults used by the finance calculator operated by Tesla to demonstrate the savings available to owners of an electric vehicle (EV) such as the Model S have also been changed, no longer assuming all owners could discount ownership of an EV as a business expense and tuning down its predictions for petrol prices.
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By GlobalDataMusk noted Tesla cars were cost prohibitive to all but the "top 1% of households" in the US but hoped, "with the right finance", this could extend to the top 10%.
richard.brown@timetric.com
