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Comment by MajorBee | Hacker News Reader

It's interesting (to me) that Model S/X units are only about 1% of all vehicles produced/delivered. Makes sense since those cars are much more expensive than Model 3/Y, but still.

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That's only because they stopped production fully in Q1 for the refresh. Most likely the numbers will catch up to be just under 10% - at least until more factories open up and M3/Y production increases again.

I find that the model S doesn't have enough 'premium' to be justified over a model 3.

That is unless you're looking at the model S plaid, but I can't envision huge demand for a car starting at 129k.

This - before the update to Model S that included the rear screen, it was getting REALLY hard to figure out why you would want to pay 2x for an electric car unless you wanted the... ventilated seats? marginal range improvement?

If 500+ mile range becomes an S/X exclusive for a few years, feels like they need to do more to differentiate.

Everything that is premium in the Plaid is included in the new Model S. The whole line has been refreshed (and the X will too, soon).

The base S is 85k (depending on the week, it changes so much). It has the same performance as the model 3 performance (top end 3) and more range. I think the s is a much nicer car, though 25k is a lot more. The S was as low as 70k at one stage, if it was 75k I'd say the extras are worth it over the 3.

If you drive a lot of long distances the 75 miles of extra range can save you hours of charging, but I do agree the premium is not worth it.

This quarter isn't representative, they only started deliveries of the new Model S at the very end of the quarter. Historically it's about 10%.

In our country the incentives for electric vehicles where being lowered just around the same time the Model 3 came around. Before that, you would be a fool for not buying a Model S (as business/contractor) as adding up all incentives and tax breaks would almost half the price. I believe other European countries follow a similar trend.

I suspect the margins on those cars are significantly higher and their contribution to profitability is higher than 1%

Sales of these models have been collapsing for several years now, because they’re at the end of their cycle and in need of an exterior redesign.

Musk mentioned on one of their earnings calls they're made for sentimental reasons [1]. The new Plaid S looks good inside (imho, having sat in one). Based on their revenue numbers, I'm inclined to believe they don't need S/X halo cars to sell 3s and Ys (and soon, Cybertruck and Semi). The brand has been built, Plaid is for bragging rights against legacy automakers (Porsche Taycan). Stationary storage has huge demand and should not be discounted, every cell manufactured is being sold in a product.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-making-model-s-x-for-s...

(disclosure: no TSLA exposure, but keep my ear to the ground, also for sentimental reasons)

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