No one's ever accused of Elon Musk of being a dummy. And the Tesla Motors chief is at it again, apparently taking advantage of a quirk in Germany's recently-enacted incentives for plug-in vehicles to get the company's Model S electric vehicle to qualify, Electrek says. What, you didn't expect to be able to pay less than $65,000 for a Model S?
The German government forced Tesla's hand earlier this year when enacting plug-in vehicle incentives worth as much as 4,000 euros ($4,400) per buyer. Germany put a price cap on qualifying vehicles at 60,000 euros (about $65,000 US) in a decision, though. Tesla, at the time, referred to the price limit as "arbitrary."
Not one to sit on its proverbial hands, Tesla quickly unbundled a bunch of features it includes on just about every other Model S in the world. That means folks in Germany can get a Model S without amenities such as navigation, backup camera, seat-positioning memory, folding mirrors, and Internet radio. Those features can be acquired as part of Tesla's new "Comfort Package." Without them, the Model S comes in at a hair under 60,000 euros. Hey, whaddya know?
Tesla said earlier this week that it will acquire Germany-based Grohmann Engineering as part of an effort to reduce manufacturing costs and speed up production, so Germany's obviously been on Musk's mind. Once the acquisition closes next year, the company will be called Tesla Grohmann Automation, and is estimated to create more than 1,000 engineering jobs in Germany during the next couple of years. And maybe some of those employees will be able to buy some cut-rate Teslas. With the German incentives, of course.
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The German government forced Tesla's hand earlier this year when enacting plug-in vehicle incentives worth as much as 4,000 euros ($4,400) per buyer. Germany put a price cap on qualifying vehicles at 60,000 euros (about $65,000 US) in a decision, though. Tesla, at the time, referred to the price limit as "arbitrary."
Not one to sit on its proverbial hands, Tesla quickly unbundled a bunch of features it includes on just about every other Model S in the world. That means folks in Germany can get a Model S without amenities such as navigation, backup camera, seat-positioning memory, folding mirrors, and Internet radio. Those features can be acquired as part of Tesla's new "Comfort Package." Without them, the Model S comes in at a hair under 60,000 euros. Hey, whaddya know?
Tesla said earlier this week that it will acquire Germany-based Grohmann Engineering as part of an effort to reduce manufacturing costs and speed up production, so Germany's obviously been on Musk's mind. Once the acquisition closes next year, the company will be called Tesla Grohmann Automation, and is estimated to create more than 1,000 engineering jobs in Germany during the next couple of years. And maybe some of those employees will be able to buy some cut-rate Teslas. With the German incentives, of course.
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