Tesla Motors’ slick Model S sedan isn’t just for the well-heeled customer anymore — it’s now expanding into crayon-toting, Sketcher-wearing circles.
Hot Wheels, the die-cast toymaker brand owned by Mattel (MAT), is producing a 1/64th 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 (TSLA). The Hot Wheels version comes in silver and red and is based on high-end P85D all-wheel drive Model S. Tesla customers have broader choices—which comes with a heftier price tag—including deep blue metallic and obsidian black metallic.
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 produced a Tesla car. The die-cast toymaker made a Tesla Roadster in 2008. However, this was the first time, Hot Wheels and Tesla designers worked together. Tesla’s director of product design Javier Verdura came to Hot Wheels headquarters and worked with project designer Ryu Asada, according to Mattel spokesman Bret Ingraham.
“It was great Tesla designers got to be toy designers for a day,” Ingraham told Coins2Day.
Mattel plans to produce about 700,ooo units of the Hot Wheels Model S cars, Ingraham said.