February 3, 2016 at 14:47

Elon Musk refused to sell Model X client after criticism



    Time management is a tricky thing. Especially if you are a famous person and you have a lot to do. Well, Vladimir Putin once was late for a meeting with the Pope for an hour . Or another example: in September 2015, Elon Musk was late for the Model X Launch Event by almost two hours , forcing to expect several thousand invited guests (mainly Model X customers).

    One of these guests, the well-known venture investor Stuart Alsop , later wrote an angry post on his blog about this . Alsop was dissatisfied with the event as a whole - and a boring presentation on the topic of safety, and the lack of finished cars, but first of all - the delay of the Mask (and the absence of any apology to this effect).

    Two days ago, the story got an unexpected continuation: Musk called Alsop ... but not to apologize. Instead, Musk expressed his dissatisfaction with Stuart about his post, his attitude to Tesla as a company, and concluded that he had canceled Alsop's order for the red Model X because he would not want such a person to own a Tesla car.

    For the automotive market, this precedent is unique (as, however, almost everything else that Mask does). Tesla Motors North America Avoids Car Dealershipspreferring direct sales and service. The only way to purchase Model S or Model X is to buy them at Tesla or order them online from the company’s website. Many Tesla customers consider this to be much more convenient than acting through dealers, but Alsop seems to have this approach, because Tesla can really control who can buy their car and who can’t.


    A Tesla showroom in a Washington DC mall.

    From a market point of view, Tesla can also afford it. Model X has already received more than 30 thousand orders , and only 23 thousand cars will be produced in 2016. Perhaps Musk decided that it would be better not to waste time and energy on a client who began to criticize himself and his company before he even got his car.

    The only thing that is surprising is the time span of more than 4 months between the publication of Alsop's post and the reaction of Mask. However, it is possible that Elon is really so busy with work that he saw an Alsop blog entry just now. Or the hassle of the last few months has affected - since the end of December, TSLA shares have been continuously falling and reached a minimum for 9 months amid a decrease in the supply forecast for 2016. Maybe Alsop just fell under a hot hand, who knows.

    PS In the comments on Alsop's blog postthose who sympathize with Stuart are wondering : will Alsop, for example, be able to purchase a used Model S “from hand” or will Mask go so far as to deactivate it remotely? In principle, Model S is updated via the Internet and constantly exchanges data with Tesla Motors services, so this option cannot be discounted.

    PPS As it turns out, this is not the first such case . Someone montauto ordered a Model S P85D in a specific configuration, but the car was not delivered to him with the seats he ordered. Montauto turned to lawyers, after which Tesla Motors canceled his order for Model X: "... we decided it's best to part ways".

    PPPS Reaction Mask:
    PPPPS An alternative view of what happened and my reaction .
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