Hey everybody Rob now we're here welcome back to Tesla Daily today we are talking about a really recent update on the Model S and Model X This just came out right before this episode And then we do have some updates on China some of those a little bit older as we did miss the Friday episode But I want to talk about a couple of those items We'll keep things pretty brief because as you can probably tell already my voice is not fully with me today So apologize if I can't make it through but we'll do my best and thanks for your patience on that
All right, so looking at the stock Tesla today not the best start to the week down 1.2% closing at $239.76 while the NASDAQ was up 1% on the day today So definitely an underperformance from Tesla and kind of a rough run here since the Q2 earnings report But that has kind of continued we'll see if anything changes tomorrow as we do have a pretty significant update here to model S and Model X with Tesla introducing the standard range Version for both vehicles
The pricing in the US is starting at $78,490 for the Model S and $88,490 for the Model X so both of these are $10,000 cheaper than the previous opening prices for the you know for these vehicles The Model S has a 320 mile range estimate the Model X at 269 miles these are with the base wheels so if you are in the design studio and you do change the wheels obviously the range is going to Decline as we see on the other trims as well that drops down to 298 miles forward the Model S
With the upgraded wheels and I think 255 for the Model X So obviously lower-range vehicles in terms of the acceleration top speed those things are a little bit lower as well What's interesting here is that the weight for both of these vehicles is the same as the current You know the prior opening price point versions So the plaid is a little bit heavier as we can see weight drops down there so 477 4,776 pounds on the plaid Model S versus the normal Model S at 4,560 That weight is maintained as we shift over to the standard range
So unless something is wrong here, and this is the same for the Model X as well Then it would appear that these would be sort of the same vehicles with only software updates potentially limiting acceleration and Range we've seen Tesla do this in the past. It's been a while since they have employed this strategy But based on these weights that does kind of seem to be the case right now
Obviously this allows Tesla to move a little bit further down the price band while still Hopefully having some people opt up into these higher priced versions that really want that additional range or better performance and things like that Which could help the margins, you know be a little bit higher than just outright lowering the prices Completely so we'll see Tesla will probably you know see what the take rate is see what the order rate is and use that to make pricing decisions going forward
I would imagine that this is not you know a long term You know a very long-term strategy for Tesla to do that software locking Maybe over time they would actually reduce the battery capacity which would save weight obviously save costs as well But for right now it does appear that this would be a software limited vehicle Obviously, we don't necessarily have any confirmation of that but an interesting strategy
So this will obviously hurt the margin on the S and the X But hopefully allow Tesla to keep costs per vehicle down by allowing them to sell, you know their entire production run Which I think is probably what Tesla is trying to do with these updates It's also kind of interesting for the Model X We're not too far out now from this being able to qualify for the $7,500 tax credit The cap for SUVs is $80,000. So the standard range X right now at $88,490 It's still a ways off but moving in that direction and you know conceivably Tesla could get that down there But obviously they would probably want that to not be a software locked vehicle that they're trying to sell for $100,000 But more of a lower range lower battery type of vehicle So we'll see obviously it's not the best sign for S and X demand But I think we've talked on a number of different occasions now about you know how there's been a couple of signs of weakness there So I'm not too surprised by this other than you know the implementation Possibly including that software lock. Obviously that does allow Tesla different capabilities over time They can resell that vehicle down the road as you know a full range vehicle If it were to be traded back into Tesla they could also offer capabilities for unlocking the additional range additional acceleration Like we have seen them do on these software locked vehicles before so We'll keep an eye out for that and see if there are any other updates on that But that's kind of what we know at this moment
All right moving on to a few updates out of China We do have lower prices for the Model Y and a little bit for the Model 3 We'll start with the Model Y though prices have been reduced to 300,000 and 350,000 RMB These are 14,000 RMB reductions are about 1900 US dollars for just the long range and performance Model Y's in China so decent price cuts But because this is not on the standard range version obviously the standard range version is going to be the high volume vehicle So what this could do is aside from just the price cuts on you know these more expensive vehicles It could shift the mix a little bit more towards those more expensive presumably higher margin vehicles Which could mitigate maybe not completely But mitigate the effect of that price reduction as then more people are opting for these higher price vehicles That maybe otherwise would have picked a standard range when that price gap is wider So that's something that Tesla is just gonna again similar to what we talked about with the SNX They're just gonna have to see how orders come in But that would be something that well again offset a little bit of the price cut that we're seeing on the model on the Model Y
Higher-end trims now for the Model 3 they're introducing an 8,000 RMB or about 1100 US dollar Insurance subsidy so we've seen this before it's in partnership with third-party insurers not with Tesla insurance, but if if buyers opt in for insurance with one of those third-party insurers They are eligible for an 8,000 RMB discount The interesting thing about this is that it runs through the end of the quarter through September 30th Obviously right now. There's a lot of focus and rumors and attention on whether or not Tesla is updating the Model 3 and Obviously with Project Thailand all of those rumors Obviously as we talked about before there should be You know we should get a little bit more answers on whether or not those rumors are Sort of confirmed this week a lot of those centered in this sort of second third week of August So we'll keep an eye out there. We'll keep an eye out very closely for updates on that But this subsidy going through the end of the quarter I think makes it a little bit less likely that we start to see Tesla selling a highland or an updated Model 3 Before that period of time because it would be a little bit weird for them to have this new vehicle and immediately introduce it with Sort of a discount or a perk or something like that so Kind of makes me think that if we do see that that it would be a little bit later But again, we'll keep an eye on things throughout this week.
I Did also want to talk briefly about production so I tweeted this on Friday But as we can see production for Tesla out of gigashang high in July was just over 80,000 vehicles so pretty much flat month over month, but it was the second best month ever for model Y production and That was about 57,600 up about 5,000 vehicles from the prior month And then the drop coming from the model 3 of about 5,000 vehicles to even that out So a little bit lower model 3 production not anything indicative of some huge complete refresh or anything like that But maybe some you know things that are in in preparation Causing that model 3 number to be a little bit lower for July.
So Again, we didn't expect there to be you know some all-out pause just based on what we've seen at the factory But it is interesting to see that drop a little bit. It's about 11% below the year-to-date average The other thing interesting here is that obviously with the wholesale sales number that we had previously had 64,000 wholesale sales the production of 80,000 significantly higher so Tesla did grow their inventory by 16,000 vehicles in The first month as we can see that's not out of line with where things have come in historically It's not not unusual by any means But I'm glad to see that the production number was still so high with the wholesale sales number being a little bit lower There will probably be a month now in the future where we see that flip Where that inventory gets drawn down? Usually that's been in the last month of the quarter I guess occasionally is probably better way to say that but Occasionally we see that happen in the last month the quarter where that inventory gets drawn down that definitely happened in in June So interesting with the production number there, and I'm glad to see that it was still quite high and then the last couple of things Joe Tagmire spotted a number of cyber trucks We continue to see more and more of these obviously the sightings continue But at Gigatexis looks like pretty obviously here nine different cyber trucks sitting in the parking lot undercovers So good to see these starting to multiply and then just kind of a fun one to end on looks like this dropped out here, but getting into the TikTok video we can see that there is a Cybertruck here on a trailer and it is being pulled by a Tesla semi Which is I think a site that many of us have hoped to see since 2019 when we kind of originally saw both of these vehicles So a lot of fun to see that and hopefully something that we see a lot more of in the future But that'll wrap it up for today.
So as always thank you for listening Make sure you're subscribed and signed up for notifications You can also find me on the X or Twitter at Tesla podcast and we'll see tomorrow for the Tuesday August 15th episode of Tesla daily Thank you.