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Bloomberg
Tesla Inc is offering further incentives to Chinese customers who buy and take delivery of new cars this month, in the latest move to boost sales in the world’s biggest electric vehicle market.
Elon Musk’s EV pioneer will subsidise purchases by 6,000 yuan ($860) for Model 3 sedans and Model Y sports utility vehicles, which currently start at 265,900 yuan and 288,900 yuan respectively after government subsidies, a company representative said.
The offer is in addition to a slew of incentives Tesla has launched recently amid intensifying competition from local automakers and concerns about production overcapacity after an upgrade of its Shanghai factory. While cutting prices across its lineup in late October, Tesla has also offered insurance subsidies and reinstated a user-referral program.
Bloomberg News reported Tesla plans to lower production this month at the Shanghai factory by about 20% from last month, although there’s flexibility to increase output if demand increases, citing people familiar with the situation. That fuelled concern demand in China, a key market for Tesla, isn’t meeting expectations — and sent the share price tumbling. A Tesla representative in China said that it was “untrue†it planned to cut output, declining to elaborate further.
The company delivered a record 100,291 cars from the Shanghai factory in November, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of China’s Passenger Car Association, said, though didn’t provide a breakdown of how many vehicles were for the domestic market, and how many were exported.
Any Model 3 or Model Y ordered in China today should be delivered within the month, Tesla’s website shows.