Read on ecnmag.com.

Imagine a refer-a-friend program that gave you a new car for putting in a good word about its company? Tesla Motors is doing just that. Sort of.

Elon Musk has announced the electric car giant’s new referral program that will run for three months, now through October 31^st, open to current Model S owners. One lucky winner will get a free Tesla Model X if they are the first person to make ten referrals. If you have that many (rich) friends, you might have a shot.

But wait, there’s more. If you make ten referrals, but you’re not the first person to do so, you can buy a Founders Series Model X for the price of a regular Model X, which won’t be available to the public. If you make five referrals, you get two tickets to Tesla’s Giga factory grand opening party in April of next year. And if you refer just one friend, Tesla will throw you a coupon for a $1,000. You can read all the fine print mumbo jumbo here.

So why is Tesla feeling so generous? Well, not only does Tesla have two new models in the works: the Model X sport utility vehicle, which is supposed to go on sale this summer, and the Model 3, a small car that is set to debut in 2016, Musk predicts this new word-of-mouth program will actually help the company save money. The average cost for Tesla to sell each car in a store is around $2,000, so handing that money directly to its drivers and new buyers could lower the overall cost down the road.

It’s only a short-term experiment for now, but if all goes well, we may see Tesla implement a similar long-term strategic decision in the future. Switching to an electric car is a commitment and lifestyle change, so if Tesla owners can convince friends and family to make the switch, the likelihood of that person sticking with Tesla in the long run is high.

A pretty smart no-cost-advertising idea if you ask me. And if you don’t have any friends willing to jump on the electric car bandwagon just yet, well, at least you have a Tesla.