Ford Motor pays $1,99,950 to find Tesla's X-factor

By Dana Hull & Keith Naughton Ford Motor paid $1,99,950 -$55,000 more than the sticker price -to buy one of the first sport utility vehicles made by Tesla Motors.

The white Model X is a Founders Series with a vehicle identification number indicating it was the 64th one made at Tesla's factory in California. The vehicle has been spotted recently in the Detroit area. The original owner, a California coin dealer, bought it as part of Tesla's customer-referral promotion.

Automakers often buy cars made by competitors for road testing and for "tear-downs" to reveal components and materials and how they're put together. But it's unusual to pay such a high price -almost $212,000 after Michigan sales tax and title -for such an early model.

"Wow, I hope that investment pays off in some good intelli gence," Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for researcher Autotrader.com. "If you're going to be one of the early buyers, you're probably going to pay well over list. But that's significant."

Krebs suspects other major automakers are also among early buyers of the Model X. Automakers are looking for ways to make highly profitable SUVs more fuel efficient as they race to meet a federal mandate to average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Ford is investing $4.5 billion in electrified vehicles and will add 13 electric cars and hybrids by 2020.

"We're going to definitely see more electrification and lightweighting," Krebs said. "Those are the things I suspect Ford would be taking special note of as they develop their sport utilities of the future."