Ford paid a big premium to have one of the first Tesla Model X

Ford paid almost $200,000– well over MSRP– to get among the very first Tesla Model X CUVs to roll off the line. It’s prevalent for automakers to buy rivals’ vehicles in order to drive them, measure them, and dismantle them to understand how they’re made, however paying over $50,000 above this particular Model X’s list price of $144,950 programs just how nervous Ford was to get the automobile into the laboratory.

The story improves, though. It has been stated that this totally loaded Founders Edition Model X was a giveaway for the initial owner, who achieved it in Tesla’s referral program in 2015 by convincing 11 individuals to buy a Model S. The electrical crossover, which just began delivering late in 2014 and has just been made in small numbers, is still working its way through a lengthy waiting list of deposit holders– so winning simply the 64th car off the line is a very big offer, and the huge resale premium is not shocking.