AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/24 Report--

On April 23, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Circular on improving the Financial subsidy Policy for the Promotion and Application of New Energy vehicles. The notice points out that the subsidy policy for the purchase of new energy vehicles due at the end of this year will be extended for two years to the end of 2022, while stipulating that the price of new energy passenger vehicles must be less than 300000 yuan (including 300000 yuan) before the subsidy.

After the release of the notice, the market generally expected that the subsidy red line of 300000 yuan would prompt Tesla to carry out a wave of price cuts, because the standard battery life upgraded version of Model 3, which sold for 323800 yuan before the subsidy, would not enjoy the subsidy policy. Xiaopeng CEO he Xiaopeng said that "there is a high probability that the price of the domestic model3 long-lasting version will be reduced to 277500 after subsidies this year, 61500 lower than the current price of 339000." Ideal car CEO Li Xiang said, "the threshold of 300000 is estimated to be designed to limit Tesla, but it gives Tesla the reason and necessity to reduce the price."

In the face of speculation in the industry, Tesla's operation did not follow the routine, not only did not reduce the price but to increase the price. According to Tesla's Chinese official website, the current price of the domestic version of Tesla Model 3, the standard upgrade version and the long-lasting version, after subsidy is 303550 yuan and 344050 yuan, an increase of 4500 yuan and 5000 yuan respectively over the previous one, while the price of the high-performance version delivered next month remains unchanged at 419800 yuan.

For Tesla, it is no news to adjust the price of his models, but in view of the fact that the four ministries have just issued a "notice" specifying that the price of new energy vehicles should be less than 300000 yuan (including 300000 yuan) before the subsidy, it is not clear whether Tesla's price increase is caused by "cutting leeks" before the policy or going public under cost pressure.

It is understood that the pre-price of Tesla's standard continued flight version Model 3 was 328000 yuan in June 2019, and the price reached 355800 yuan when it was opened for booking in October. In January this year, Tesla cut 24700 yuan, coupled with new energy subsidies and exemption from purchase tax, the final standard continued flight version of Model 3 sold for only 299000 yuan, causing consumers to "rob cars" frantically, while old car owners went to Tesla stores to defend their rights and said they had been "cut leeks." Enough to foresee that if Tesla cuts prices again because of new energy subsidies, it will inevitably lead to a new round of rights protection. Of course, the price increase of Tesla belongs to the price increase, but the final choice of whether to buy or not is still in the hands of consumers.

Analyst Zhong Shi said that the price originally set by Tesla is to follow the market-oriented road, not to subsidize, so Tesla will not deliberately lower the price in order to cater to the subsidies. In addition, Tesla is extremely confident in his own brand and has figured out the psychology of Chinese consumers, who will not choose Tesla because of the amount of subsidies, and an increase of less than 2 per cent is insignificant to these consumers.

Since the decline of new energy subsidies in 2019, the sales of new energy vehicles in China have declined in the third quarter compared with the same period last year. In 2020, under the background of the depression of the car market, the interference of the epidemic situation is superimposed, and the downward trend of the car market in China is further intensified. In the process, Tesla counterattacked strongly. According to the retail data released by Sinochem data Center, Tesla Model 3 reached 11927 units in a single month, ranking first among the new powers in March.

As for whether Tesla will reduce the price again, there is a great possibility. Because with the localization of Tesla's supply chain, domestic Model 3 still has a lot of room for improvement. It is estimated that the localization of car body parts will reach 80% by July 2020, and this time coincides with the official arrival of the new energy subsidy policy in 2020.

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