Porsche-Jeck:
SciFrog:

Maybe they realized it was too expensive to close all the stores at once? How do they get out of the leases?

Maybe both, too expensive and not so enthusiastic customer feedback. In any case one would expect that in a well managed business somebody would have done the math and checked the feasibility before doing the announcement Smiley


I fully agree that from an objective point of view it seems very strange... But seeing it from another perspective could be the exact opposite and a very smart step from a business perspective. I'm not saying that I'm right, but give it a thought.

1. Tesla decrease the prices for their cars the other week. Especially for Model X/S. Result: increased demand on a car that start to show its age and a refresh is around the corner (6 months?)

2. People feel that the X/S is now priced rather nice and many put down a deposit and order a car with quick delivery. SciFrog in here is a living example.

3. Those on the fence, but haven't already ordered, now get the message that prices will go up with 3% in a week. This will result in even more orders coming in to Tesla world wide the coming week (than without the announced price increase of 3%)

4. Tesla lower their stock of cars/parts/batteries and milk the final fruits from the X/S before the update is launched to market.

5. The Model 3 buyer will act upon this change like this: Price decreased with a few percent a few weeks ago. With this some customers pulled the trigger and ordered one, because the expensive AWD version got a bit cheaper.

6. The Model 3 buyer now got the message that all variants except the cheapest one (that doesn't exist outside of US yet and is very limited) will increase with 3% in a weeks time. Those Model 3 buyers on the fence get a bit stressed and now decide to buy the car 3% cheaper before the price increase.

With this strategy the net effect for Tesla will be a lot more incoming orders. And looking historically into this, Tesla are genius in playing with quarterly "demand levers". This is just another one.

When the demand for X/S (current gen) at those new prices is milked out then Tesla will make sure that the cars get delivered and in a few months from now there will be coming a facelift/next gen X/S with new interior and so on... when announced it will already be in production and deliveries to US customers will start short after the announcement. And so it will continue.... 

They are also master at managing the Osbourne effect by not reveal stuff beforehand and just surprise the market by pulling something out of the hat very unexpected. Make sure that Elon has something in mind on the 14th on top of the Model Y.

Some say that it is a very strange way to do business and manage a company. I think it's quite entertaining and more fun than the traditional and predictive way and blow some fresh air into the automotive industry Smiley