Elon Musk: We have a 'secret weapon' to stoke demand
Tesla has a "secret weapon?"
That's what CEO Elon Musk said on the company's fourth-quarter earning call with analysts on Wednesday. (Thanks to Seeking Alpha for the transcript.)
Deutsche Bank's Rod Lache wanted to know if, despite Musk's assurances that Tesla has no demand issues with its cars, some demand questions could arise in the future.
Specifically, Lache asked if Tesla would take another look at selling cars through franchised dealers (the company wants to sell direct to customers), if it would spend more of marketing, and if it would raise prices.
Musk said that the outlook for 2015 demand is fine. But he added, "I think we do have a secret weapon on the demand side that will probably start to deploy later this year for the demand generation."
I have no idea what he's talking about.
Really, no idea.
And Lache didn't press Musk on it.
This probably isn't a secret weapon in the product sense. In the past, Musk has sought to make Tesla ownership available to more people by setting up a leasing program and, more recently, a pre-owned vehicle program (yes, used Teslas - cheaper that new Teslas!).
So I'm guessing its a secret weapon designed to make Teslas more affordable. But I'm just guessing here.