The most popular news in the automotive circle today is undoubtedly the price adjustment of Tesla Model 3 and Model Y. According to the official information, the highest decrease of Model 3 was 18,000, while the highest decrease of Model Y was 37,000. Among them, the price range of Tesla Model 3 was 265,900-349,900, and the price range of Tesla Model Y was 288,900-397,900. The price range of Model 3 was 14,000 yuan and 18,000 yuan respectively. The price range of Model Y was 28,000 yuan, 37,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan respectively.
Although Tesla China's price adjustment has long been on the rise, it still hurts many users who have ordered and picked up cars recently. Although such a large "dive" range is very friendly to new users, it has also attracted complaints from some old users. There are even news that car owners have "protected their rights" in response to price cuts. So, why did Tesla do this?
Will the decline in the stock price be a cause?
Since entering 2022, Tesla's stock price has fallen by 46%, and Musk's net worth has evaporated by more than 110 billion US dollars (about 800 billion yuan). Currently, Tesla's stock price remains at around 214 US dollars.
: After Musk announced his plan to acquire Twitter in April this year, Tesla's stock price started to decline, especially on April 26 local time, Tesla's stock price closed down 12%, setting the largest single-day decline since September 2020, with its market value evaporated by US$126 billion.
Until today, it is this decline that has been intermittent, making Tesla investors worried that if the Twitter acquisition plan comes true, Musk's distraction in funding and operation will affect Tesla's situation, resulting in their lack of confidence in Tesla or Musk.
However, the downward trend of Tesla's stock price is actually something that everyone expected. Why? The main reason is that Tesla has always been in a state of extreme overvaluedness. Since the value of the entire Tesla has been overbubbled, the overall market development space has also been compressed on a relatively large scale. Because of this, the decline in Tesla's stock price can be seen as a manifestation of Tesla's return to value, so this does not have much incentive to adjust the price of Model 3 and Model Y.
The increase in production capacity may be the main reason for the increase in supply
Review of Tesla's series of operations since it determined to produce and sell in China in 2019, and has experienced more than 10 price adjustments. The reasons for the adjustment are mostly related to changes in national subsidy policies and changes in raw material prices. Among them, in July 2021, the domestic Tesla Model 3 price reached the lowest price of 235,900 yuan in history. Later, due to the rise in prices of raw materials such as chips and batteries, the price of Tesla cars also responded to the rise.
Before this price adjustment, Tesla China had "six consecutive increases" within a year. Specifically, on November 19, 2021, the price of Model 3 was raised by 15,000 yuan to 250,900 yuan; on November 24, 2021, the Model 3 rear-wheel drive version rose to 255,652 million yuan, and the Model Y rear-wheel drive version rose to 280,752 million yuan; on December 31, 2021, the starting price of Model 3 rose by 10,000 yuan to 265,600 yuan, and the starting price of Model Y rose by 21,000 yuan to 301,800 yuan.
Entering 2022, Tesla's price increase trend in China has not stopped. On March 10, the price of Model 3 high-performance version and Model Y long-range and high-performance version both increased by 10,000 yuan; on March 17, the price of the rear-wheel drive Model Y increased to 316,900 yuan, an increase of 15,060 yuan; on June 17, the domestic Model Y long-range version increased by 19,000 yuan to 394,900 yuan.
However, while the car price is rising, Tesla China has also launched a "disguised price reduction". For car owners who have completed picking up their cars from September 16 to September 30 and choose to purchase insurance in Tesla stores, an insurance subsidy of 8,000 yuan will be provided. The insurance subsidy can be directly used to reduce and exempt car prices. In addition, an insurance subsidy activity was launched again on October 1. Consumers purchase cars from October 1 to December 31. If they choose to purchase corresponding auto insurance through Tesla's cooperative insurance institutions, they can enjoy insurance subsidy of 7,000 yuan through the final payment.
From the above two policies, Tesla China's series of operations seem to be a transitional behavior of official price adjustments, and try to reduce the psychological gap between users' car purchases. In fact, in the middle of this year, with the completion of Tesla's Shanghai Super Factory production line renovation, the production capacity has increased rapidly and the supply has increased, resulting in a significant reduction in the vehicle delivery cycle. The shortening of the delivery cycle of
means that Tesla may face the problem of greater production than demand in China. Although Tesla has not officially admitted it, with the increase in production capacity of the Austin factory in the United States and Berlin factory in Germany, the export demand of Chinese factories will be greatly weakened. Whether domestic demand in the Chinese market can support the company's current huge production scale requires early response measures.
. This official price adjustment may be Tesla's current best solution for China. After all, in the past four years, Tesla has not launched new products for the mass market. It only relies on the Model 3 and Model Y to cope with the increasingly fierce market competition. Even if the latter still has outstanding sales performance, it is not easy for Tesla to maintain its current market position in the face of more and more competitive products of the same level with good product strength.
It is worth mentioning that with the official price adjustment, there is also the "Tesla Chest Points Reward". Whether it is a Tesla owner or a prospective owner, after the recommended friend successfully picks up the car, he will have the opportunity to enjoy the points exchange gifts and superimposes of gifts. In addition to many great value products such as TeslaMic wireless microphone, Model Y children's walker, 1500 kilometers super charging quota, there are also quarterly gifts such as fully autonomous driving capability (FSD), third-generation home charging service package, Tesla Model S children's stroller, as well as annual gifts such as Model 3/Y rear-wheel drive version 12-month use rights, 3-year Tesla boutique mall use rights, 50,000 kilometers super charging quota, Shanghai Super Factory VIP tour and other annual gifts.
was written at the end
Although Tesla's motivation to trade price for volume this time is very obvious, whether from the third quarter financial report or sales in China, Tesla can be said to be a "top student", and the data has once again set multiple records on the same month-on-month basis. Against this background, the price reduction of Model 3 and Model Y, as well as the launch of the "Treasure Box Points Reward" activity is somewhat surprising.
When Tesla adheres to the direct sales model, it can completely ensure that the price of the car model is always open and transparent, avoid middlemen making a profit from price difference, and allow consumers to fully enjoy unified and fair car purchase prices, such irregular official price adjustment behaviors will make old customers feel "cut". How can this problem be handled better in the future? This is not only something Tesla needs to consider, but I believe other new car-making forces also have to think of ways.
