Tesla is pulling a new demand lever for the end of the quarter and end of the year. Targeting a major milestone of 500,000 deliveries for the year, Elon Musk has announced on Twitter that those who buy a car in the last 3 days of this year, will get the Full Self-Driving package free for 3 months.
Update
To clarify, this offer was only made in specific markets, which unfortunately did not include Australia.
While we’ve seen free Supercharging offered as an incentive during the end of quarter pushes before, this is the first time we’ve seen FSD offered as a carrot.
Obviously having to take delivery before midnight on December 31st, probably means you’d need to purchase a car from the existing inventory, rather than place an order today. For Model 3s, the estimated delivery timeframe is currently 9-12 weeks in Australia.
The FSD package typically costs new owners A$10,100 to buy at the time of purchase, or the same A$10,100 to unlock it after the vehicle is purchased. Until now, these have been the only two ways to get FSD.
We know Tesla will offer FSD subscriptions in early 2021, but we have no detail on the per month or annual cost. If we take the cost of FSD today and divide it by an average lease cycle of 36 months, the cost per month would be A$280 per month. It’s possible this equates to around A$199 per month in the US.
With today’s offer from Elon, it creates lots of speculation about what happens after the 3-month free trial. Does FSD simply turn off and you’re back to Autopilot, or does this timeframe indicate the subscription offering will be ready to roll and users could then migrate to a per-month cost to keep it?
Right now, Tesla’s website lists the following features for Full Self-Driving.
- Navigate on Autopilot: automatic driving from motorway on-ramp to off-ramp including interchanges and overtaking slower cars.
- Auto Lane Change: automatic lane changes while driving on the motorway.
- Autopark: both parallel and perpendicular spaces.
- Summon: your parked car will come find you anywhere in a car park. Really.
- Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control: assisted stops at traffic controlled intersections.
Upcoming:
- Automatic driving on city streets.
While some of those like Summon may still be pretty early in their development, I can promise you, once you have FSD, it’s like having fast internet, going back will not be a prospect you want to entertain.
As we know, the people in the FSD beta program also have that last one. When that feature is released to those who have FSD, the price of the FSD package will undoubtedly rise again to match the new functionality.
Here in lies the big dilemma for those on the fence about FSD. If you want your car to drive itself in the future and have the ability to enrol in Tesla’s robotaxi network, then you may be better to lock in the price now.
‘Full Self-Driving Capability is available for purchase post-delivery, prices are likely to increase over time with new feature releases’.
