The regular price for 1TB of Google Drive storage is $50/month, so Google offers $1800 of storage for only $1300 and the hardware is "free". Obviously, there's a big difference between monthly payments and an upfront payment, not to mention that you may not need 1TB of storage right now and you can always upgrade later.
Google only offers 100GB of storage for 2 years when you buy any other current-generation Chromebook (Samsung Series 3, Samsung 550, Acer C7, HP Pavilion 14), so you only get $120 worth of storage. Chromebook Pixel users get 10 times more storage and an additional year for using it. And that's not the only "goody": "your Chromebook comes with 12 free [Gogo in-air internet] passes that you can use over 2 years on domestic US flights."