Tesla, the trendy electric car manufacturer, has announced they'll be releasing a new model priced at about $35,000. This is a huge drop from the $100,000+ models they've manufactured to date.
The media frenzy over the announcement has been near-orgasmic as some (such as Gizmodo.com) are hailing the new, affordable model as being the most significant automotive release since the Model T:
To understand why that price tag is such a game-changer, you don't need to look much further than Tesla's current lineup: a two-seat convertible for $100,000, and a luxury sedan for $70,000. These are niche vehicles with limited markets, and while Tesla has exceeded its own sales targets for the less pricey Model S, that still only amounts to a paltry 23,000 cars sold in 2013. Toyota, by contrast, sold that many Camrys in the U.S. in the first 20 days of last year.
But a $35,000 Tesla? That's Toyota Avalon or Chevy Impala money. A sub-40k car isn't a plaything for George Clooney; it's a daily driver your kid's basketball coach could buy. And it knocks down the last, most difficult hurdle that's prevented electric cars from truly hitting the mainstream.
And herein lies the problem with the new Tesla model: Anyone can drive one.
Have you ever seen a guy behind the wheel of a Tesla? Forget about electricity, he could power the thing just by his own sense of self-satisfaction. Now that Tesla is making it affordable for the non-Ben Afflecks to get behind the wheel, it's awesome rating will plummet as fast as a battery inferno can envelop an over-priced speedster.
The fact is most of the buzz about Tesla has been over their perceived exclusivity. Think about it: Not only do they carry a hefty price tag, but there are only 102 charging stations in North America. In other words, not only do you have to be the right kind of person with enough money to buy one of these death traps, but you also have to live in the right place and drive to the right places if you want to keep it operating.
What kind of d-bag buys a car like that? A d-bag craving attention.
As Rob Enderle in Digital Trends put it, after he took a Tesla for an extended test drive:
Just a quick note on status: In Silicon Valley there are a lot of Tesla S cars on the road and I didn’t figure mine would pull much attention. I couldn’t have been more wrong, I had people following taking pictures, folks approaching me while I was hooking up the chargers, and I could see people checking the car out in the parking lots. It drew attention wherever it went as if it were a supercar. People would even drive by, smile and wave. If you are buying a car for status, at least here in California, this car seems to produce a ton of it.
Attention is the most important feature that comes with the Tesla and it's a lot more expensive than the floor mats. Now that any schmoe can own one, it's just not worth owning.
Good news Bieber wannabes, you can still get a Fisker!