In a rare move from the American EV manufacturer, Tesla announced significant price cuts across its lineup late Thursday. CEO Elon Musk famously railed against the practice of offering discounts on new vehicles in an email to Tesla employees years ago. Now he appears poised to eat those words, and some customers who accepted them as gospel took to social media overnight to voice their frustrations.
@elonmusk I’m not going to lie this does make me a bit angry. I took delivery of my long range 7 seat model Y two weeks ago and and now it’s $13000 dollars cheaper before the tax credit. I’m not expecting anything but I understand why people get pissed at this sort of thing.
— DisruptingTech Δτ (@brycePharmD2012) January 13, 2023
The price cuts aren’t trivial. The seven-seat Model Y is a whopping $13,000 cheaper than it was prior to the discount. Some of these costs have been absorbed elsewhere; the price for Tesla’s Full Self Driving package (which remains in beta, not to mention under investigation by federal regulators) has crept up to $15,000. Those impacted directly by the sudden increase have started asking for consideration in some form, be it in the form of free upgrades or other incentives. Some have suggested customers try to take advantage of Tesla’s no-questions-asked return policy, but that was quietly discontinued in 2020.
I agree, I just picked up my model Y a few weeks ago and now it’s 4K less with potential for $7.5k tax credit. I think recent customer’s should be offered an additional incentive to make this right. Software upgrades? Performance upgrade?
— Hodl Yodl (@HodlYodl) January 13, 2023
Like many other auto manufacturers, Tesla announced multiple price hikes as inflation ramped up in 2021 and 2022. The discounts available on 2023 models bring the prices back in line with where they were before the first of two significant 2022 price increases was announced in March.
The price cuts also have the potential of degrading the value of used Teslas. With more car buyers taking out larger and longer loans, this could put some Tesla owners upside down on their loans.
Tesla made price cuts last week in China, which elicited a similar reaction: Recent Tesla buyers amassed in protests in showrooms and demanded they get the price cuts too.
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Source: www.autoblog.com