Elon Musk makes it more expensive to own a Tesla

Image: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Last week Tesla CEO Elon Musk abruptly ended sales of the lowest-priced Tesla Model S and X cars. Now, this week he’s slashing more with the end of Tesla’s customer referral program.

The eccentric billionaire tweeted Wednesday night that as of Feb. 1, the program that gave referred Tesla buyers free six months of Supercharging (and three more months if they didn’t take a test drive) would be ending.

With the program’s end comes the end of Tesla’s quirky perks for getting your friends to buy the electric cars. For your first referral you got to launch your photo into deep space orbit. As the website explained, “We’ll laser-etch any image onto glass and send it into deep space orbit for millions of years. We’ll also send you a limited edition hat to commemorate the launch.”

A second referral offered the choice between a Elon-signed black Wall Connector or a mini driveable electric Model S for kids.

Once you got up to five referrals you got a VIP invitation for you and a guest to a “future unveiling event.” Somewhat presumptuous, but that Model Y has to come out at some point. 

Every week the program awarded a lucky winner the chance to “race a giant electric semi truck around our test track.” 

That’s all ending.

Musk said on Twitter that the incentive program was “adding too much cost to the cars, especially Model 3.” The Model 3 is the “budget” Tesla, starting at $45,000. Tesla’s Supercharging stations, or fast battery charging portals, charge customers by the minute or by kilowatt-hour (kWh). In California, to fully charge a mid-range 62 kWh Model 3 costs about $16. 

As of Monday, the 75 kWh battery versions of the original sedan and SUV Teslas were no longer available. Those cars with the smaller batteries were the cheapest available. Now the S and X both start at over $90,000.

Last year, Musk started cutting back car options to streamline the manufacturing process, like when paint colors were taken off menu.

At this rate, Musk better keep at least one car on the menu.