SYDNEY: Tesla Motors’ slick Model S sedan will be available in affordable price. Hot Wheels, the die-cast toymaker brand owned by Mattel, is producing a 1:64 scale model of Tesla’s luxury all-electric flagship vehicle at a suggested retail price of $1.09. That’s about 69,000 times cheaper than the full size version sold by Palo Alto-based Tesla Motors.
The Model S 70D, the automaker’s base model that’s equipped with a 70 kilowatt-hour battery pack, starts at about $75,000 before incentives.
The affordable price isn’t the only perk — Hot Wheels can sell the Model S in any state. It’s available now at retailers Target and Toys R’ Us. Tesla Motors, on the other hand, has been banned from selling directly to customers in a number of states, including Michigan, Arizona and Texas. In March, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill allowing manufacturers of zero-emissions vehicles to sell directly to customers, effectively lifting a ban placed on Tesla in April 2014 by the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission.
This isn’t the first time Hot Wheels has collaborated with Tesla Motors. The die-cast toymaker produced a Tesla Roadster in 2008.
