Tesla Offers Incentives To Test Social Marketing

Tesla has announced $1000 off incentives for owners of its vehicles and new buyers they refer, in what CEO tech entrepreneur Elon Musk calls a social marketing experiment.

Offering “Incentives” sounds a lot like a move out of the traditional car dealer playbook, which Musk has avoided for Tesla, selling direct to consumers without dealer franchises and a NO ADVERTISING marketing plan.

Legal challenges in many states to Tesla company-owned stores by powerful car dealership franchise interests, has obstructed sales growth. And yet the $70K – $100K ticket on the Tesla S has not hurt the sleek electric sedan’s sales.

With less than 4 percent combined hybrid and electric US sales after nearly two decades, most experts predict that synthetic fuel and hydrogen cell based technologies will eventually become the standard mass vehicle transportation fuel solution.

Tesla is emerging as a manufacturer supplying electric technology to other car companies scrambling to meet government mandated Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards.

However as noted recently by Bob Davis, Executive VP of Mazda US Operations, his company’s top EPA mileage rating was achieved without any electrics or hybrids in the lineup.