Tesla may be known for its great post-sales customer service but the same cannot be said for the company's recent decisions about how prices for its electric vehicles are presented on its website. While originally only an issue on the web pages for the Tesla Model 3, it seems Tesla is sticking to its guns and have updated the pages for the Tesla Model S and Model X as well.
According to Electrek, Tesla has finally gone all-in with its pricing scheme which highlights a Tesla electric vehicle's price after gas savings and incentives first before showing potential customers the actual retail price of the vehicle. The publication points out that Tesla's practice of highlighting savings first before revealing the actual retail price is controversial because different potential Tesla owners may end up with differing gas saving rates.
The pricing scheme presentation change comes with Tesla adopting the new customization interface they had originally rolled out only for the Tesla Model 3. While the new customization screen is easier to navigate and provides a better view of the customization options available to Tesla's electric vehicles, its new layout does make it harder for a potential customer to see the vehicle's actual price.
Thankfully, Tesla has not hidden the actual cost of their vehicles from potential customers. As Electrek points out, browsing customers just need to select the vehicle that catches their eye and the actual retail price of the selected Tesla Model S or Model X is eventually shown at the bottom of the screen. To add to the factors that potential customers should look out for, the official purchase price is thankfully indicated just below the savings price when a customer is brought to the checkout screen.
Electrek points out that the pricing scheme, despite being transparent to a degree, may essentially be misleading as the "price after savings" rate assumes that future Tesla owners will be paying the average home charging rate for U.S. households, and also assumes that the Tesla owners will be maximizing the use of Tesla superchargers at least 10 percent of their total charging time.
Tesla's update for its customization service just comes a little after Elon Musk announced the company's revision of available premium features for the Tesla Model S and Model X. The specified changes to available features - such as standard all black interiors for both the Model S and Model X - are now reflected in the new Tesla electric vehicle customization screen.
