Tesla Roadster 2020 is coming, but there's a catch. Let's find out!
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Tesla has been riding a huge wave of success recently. Their stock is soaring, and they achieved their fourth straight quarter of profitability for the first time ever. But they have a bit of an interesting $20 million problem. Or is it actually their secret advantage? In 2017 Tesla announced the 2020 Roadster. Well, it's 2020 and still no Roadster. By far the question I get asked is: Andy, when are you getting your Roadsters? And it seems like my answer is that my Roadsters are always two years away no matter what year it is.

Tesla has something that no other car company has: a referral program that provides every Tesla owner with a unique referral link to share with others, and if someone orders a Tesla using a referral link, both people get 1,000 free Supercharging miles. If you didn’t know, I’ve been Tesla’s top referrer since 2018, and through the referral program I have won two next-gen Tesla Roadsters. I’m not the only one getting free Roadsters. Tesla is supposedly giving away over 80 free Founders Series Roadsters through the referral program which cost $250,000 each, and Tesla said they’re only producing 1,000 of these.

In 2018 when I got my Model 3 the program was in Phase 9, and Tesla was offering some awesome prizes for referrals such as a kid size Model S, priority access to software updates, unique performance wheels, and an invite to a future Tesla event. These secret levels offered some even more incredible prizes such as experiences like attending a SpaceX rocket launch. But even as amazing as that was, the most exciting secret level prize was the ability to win discounts on an upcoming Founders Series Roadster. 10 referrals unlocked a 10% discount with the ability to get a 100% discount after hitting 55 referrals. I emailed the Tesla referral program in November 2018 when I hit 55 referrals and in their response they said: "If you earn more than 55 you begin working towards your second Roadster in the same fashion.”

In December 2018 I became the top referrer and not too long after that, the head of the referral program left Tesla, and around that same time Elon announced that they were officially ending the referral program as a cost cutting measure. Since Tesla is only producing 1,000 of these how many will be sold at the full retail price after honoring all the discounts?

If we look at this from a different perspective we know that giving away a $250,000 Roadster does not mean it's an actual $250,000 expense for Tesla. Giving away a Roadster has two costs for Tesla: the actual cost of producing the car which should hopefully be much less than $250,000 and the opportunity cost of giving away a car that someone else possibly would have purchased at full price. They know that most of these free Roadsters are going into the hands of some of the most influential owners including Tesla focused YouTubers like myself or Ben Sullins all the way up to huge YouTubers like MKBHD, and of course other content creators such as bloggers and podcasters.

Tesla also knows that some of these people who won Roadsters may have violated the program rules so they have the right to disqualify them. I’m assuming not all of these 80 Roadsters will actually be given away, also due to some of the winners also not being able to afford the income taxes required to take delivery of such an expensive car.

Tesla is smart. They know the Roadsters in the hands of influential content creators will draw a ton of attention to Tesla as a brand and thus increase people’s interest in possibly buying one of the “normal" Tesla vehicles. Tesla spends $0 on advertising while GM spent nearly 3 billion dollars on advertising in 2019 alone. Tesla has restructured the referral program to save the company money while also offering exclusive rewards such as a chance to win a Founder’s Series Model Y monthly and a Founder’s Series Roadster quarterly.

There’s someone at Tesla who has proven to Elon, or maybe it’s Elon himself that knows the referral program is worth it enough to bring it back from the dead after promising to give away millions of dollars worth of Roadster discounts.

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