Tesla Customers Shocked By Price Increases

Tesla has increased the price of its Tesla Roadster by pricing once-standard equipment at $6,700. Customers who thought they’d locked-in pricing by submitting up to a $50k deposit, haven’t. “We want to have healthy margins on the car to guarantee the viability of the company,” says Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad. “The margins are really important on this car for the next group of investors, whether it’s public shareholders in an IPO, the federal government looking at federal loan candidates or the next group of venture capitalists.” According to Wired, the biggest increase is to the “high-power connector” that recharges the car’s lithium-ion battery in as little as three hours. Once offered as standard equipment, it now costs $3,000. Tesla still includes a mobile 110-volt connector in the base price. But it requires as much as 37 hours to recharge a dead battery. “That can seem startling, and it is a big change,” Konrad admits. “But we have a lot of customers who use their mobile charger as a primary charger. Even with a 110 charger plugged in overnight, they’re nearly full again the next morning, because most customers aren’t driving the car to empty. They’re constantly topping off the battery.”

Other once-standard equipment includes the $2,300 forged-alloy wheels and a $400 “SolarPlus” windshield. Lower-cost alloy wheels and a regular glass windshield will be offered as standard equipment. The destination charge also rose $1,000, the price of metallic paint has doubled, and gizmos like bluetooth and navigation have been rolled into a $3k “electronics package.”

Aaron Bragman of IHS Global Insight, says charging customers more money after they’ve already put down deposits “is highly unusual” and implies that Tesla is “probably a lot closer to the edge than they want you to think.” Which is the only explanation for this massive “eff-you” to wait-listed customers.

Check out the reaction from the bait-and-switched Tesla depositers at the Tesla Motors Club forum.