Does this strategy even make sense? You can charge $20k for a car. Why wouldn’t you add options that cost you nearly nothing but some amount of buyers will opt in for a meaningful revenue increase.

Charge $1k for paint. Even if 95% of people don’t do that, 5% of orders just increased their revenue by 5%. Paint doesn’t take engineering time.. just spend $500 and let some other company do it. This is why trims exist, having a single low price point means people who want to spend more either produce lower revenue than possible, or are disappointed.

IMO this one trim, one price is almost certainly a prelaunch marketing gimmick as from a business perspective there is literally no benefit.

> Paint doesn’t take engineering time.. just spend $500 and let some other company do it.

Are you sure you read the article? The is explicitly addressed.

The moment you say "just", you've lost the argument.

In the YT video (linked in another comment), it claims they save $350M by not building painting facilities.

I think it better if they just give options for easy modding. You take it to a garage for a mechanic to spray it, or to hollow out radio nook, or add a phone charger outlet.