Ford pays $55,000 markup for Tesla Model X

The Blue Oval just shelled out some serious extra cash for a Tesla Model X.
Ford paid $199,950 for one of the first all-electric SUVs produced by the California-based automaker,
Bloomberg News says, citing vehicle-registration documents. That’s a $55,000 mark up – 38 percent – from the car’s sticker price.

Ford’s sinking about $4.5 billion in its effort to speed up its electric-vehicle technology, so the price tag for this Model X isn’t all that much. Ford spokesman Erich Merkle said in an e-mail to
Autoblog that it was, “common industry practice among many automakers to buy production vehicles for testing as soon as they are released” and that the effort often involved paying more than sticker price. A Tesla representative didn’t immediately responded to a request for comment from
Autoblog on Wednesday. For more on these competitive tear-downs, check out
this classic article from
WIRED.

The “as soon as they are released” is important because, in this case, it means that Ford had to spring for a Founders Series X, of which fewer than 100 were made. The Model X P90D also comes equipped with the Ludicrous Speed option that propels the SUV from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just over three seconds.

The car was originally owned by a California-based coin dealer, who got the rights to buy the car by referring 11 buyers to Tesla. He immediately flipped the car to a Chicago dealership, and Ford ponied up last month.

New Tesla EVs tend to be met with a frenzy when they’re first made available to the public, most recently, the Model 3. We noted
back in late January that one early owner of a Model X put his SUV on the market (via the website
Panjo) for $215,000, or about $81,000 more than the car’s $134,200 sticker price. So while we won’t go as far as calling Ford’s purchase a bargain, the early-model markups aren’t exactly rare. And for those who did get in line early, Tesla delivered about 2,400 Model X SUVs during the first quarter.

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