Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:My understanding of Tesla is - start with most expensive model and offer it first and make customers wait forever. Next introduce a less expensive vehicle that is still twice the average price of a new car and make customers wait a long time. Finally promise the next vehicle will cost significantly less and that the wait will be tolerable. I am waiting on a model 3 but don't expect it before next Fall. So not wanting to rewrite history, but the Tesla analogy does not apply here in the least. Once again a cargument bites the dust.
No, that's just being a butt vs looking at the topic - business strategy.
Tesla knew they had a very expensive proposition in front of them - in both of technology and getting to scale. So you don't focus on a high volume, low margin segment... you focus on HIGH margin, low volume segment. On the backs of the "price is no object" crowd, you use the high revenue products to bring in cash to build out the business and develop your infrastructure. The low volume keeps you from having to scale out horizontally without much to gain. Once you have hammered out your processes and technology, you can plan to scale up and use economies of scale to drive your costs down... and enable you to offer lower priced products and attack the center of the market.
JJP knows they are looking at a low volume segment, so they know they need the high margin.. which means go luxury. They also know that the luxury angle is the one that differentiates themselves in the market from the competition. It's why it's a good plan as long as you can deliever and the buyers are still out there.
If later they decide to move into a more value segment is still a question... In other industries you often introduce a new BRAND for that.. so you don't dilute or contradict the expectations of the brand you previously built. Ultimately it will be needed if JJP saturates the 'luxury' end of the brand. Then, the only place to grow is by moving into other segments.
