In China, where demand for some Model Y is perhaps increasing as a result of price reductions announced on Friday, Tesla has indicated longer delivery times for potential customers. According to Tesla’s website, the delivery time for orders of the rear-wheel-drive and long-range Model Y was one week longer on Monday than it had been on Friday. On those models, the wait was one to four weeks as of Friday.
On Friday, Tesla announced discounts which led to the demand in the second-largest market of electric vehicle makers. After the discounts, the delivery time for the Model Y and Model 3 variants remained at Two to Five weeks.
Tesla gave a discount of 6% to 13.5% discounts on Friday. Experts say that Tesla announced these discounts when the demand for the particular model in China started to fall. As a result, several models of Tesla are now priced similarly to BYD’s best-selling models.
According to the reports, Tesla had not modified its January production schedule for its Shanghai facility. It called for the halting of the assembly lines beginning on January 20 and lasting through the end of the month.
The buyers of Tesla in late 2022 are waiting for the response of the company for additional compensation because they missed out on the discount. But, the company representatives stated that they won’t compensate these buyers. The discounts and compensations will only apply to the potential buyers who purchase the cars after announcing the price cuts.
Some Chinese consumers of Tesla said that they were misled into thinking there wouldn’t be any additional reductions. Many other consumers wanted to benefit from a nationwide EV subsidy that ended at the end of last year.
The consumers had already begun protests against Tesla. About 200 buyers of Tesla protested at their delivery center in Shanghai. The buyer’s said that they are protesting against the US-based carmaker’s decision to give discounts for the second time in the last three months.
Many people from the protests claimed that they had thought that the rates Tesla charged for its cars late last year would not be reduced as drastically as the carmaker has disclosed to boost sales and support production at its Shanghai facility.
The videos of the protest from cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Xi’an started to circulate on the internet, where they received mostly negative comments. The internet users told the protesters that before buying anything they should be aware of the terms of the contract. Otherwise, they would have to protest like that. The mainstream media channels chose not to cover the protest.
On 6th January, Tesla announced a discount on its particular models in China. It was the second time that Tesla announced a price cut in the last three months.
Tesla gave discounts on its best-selling electric car models Model Y and Model 3. It is the best-selling electric model of the Tesla from Japan, South Korea, and Australia. The sudden discounts announced by Tesla are considered by the buyers as an effort to help their largest production hub, the Shanghai factory, to demand stoke output.
Friday’s closing price for Tesla stock was up to 2.5%. However, the stock has lost 70% of its value during the past 12 months.
Tesla had strong demand for its vehicles until the end of last year and because of that demand, they had been able to maintain and raise the prices.
In December 2022, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla claimed that the radical changes in interest rates had adversely affected the car’s affordability. He added that Tesla would provide discounts to bring back their demand and growth.
China is the second largest market for Tesla after the United States. The current price cut in China along with the one in October resulted in a 13% to 24% decrease in their particular model’s prices from September.
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Tesla announced a 6% to 13.5% discount on its Model Y and Model 3 cars in China.
The price of the Model 3 was cut from $39,204 to $33,427. These models are selling at a lower rate of 24% to 32% compared to the price in the US.
At the end of last year, Tesla’s Chinese-built model delivery fell to its lowest level in five months. Tesla enlarged their Shanghai production facility recently, aiming to export vehicles to Europe.
Tesla’s Model Y was Europe’s best-selling car for the second time in 2022.
Even though Tesla has announced discounts on its particular models in China, there isn’t any indication regarding the price cut of these models in Europe. By the end of last year, Tesla’s market share of electric vehicles in Europe had increased by 6.6%. That is it increased from 12.3% to 18.9% within a month.
The high demand for the Model Y and Model 3 in China might be Tesla’s reason for the long delivery time.
