AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)11/14 Report--

On November 14, Tesla's Chinese official website showed that the starting prices of Model 3 and Model Y rear wheel drive versions were both raised, with the Model 3 rear wheel drive refurbished version rising by 1500 yuan, starting at 261400 yuan, and Model Y rear wheel drive version up by 2500 yuan, with an adjusted starting price of 266400 yuan.

This is Tesla's second price increase in a week and the third in half a month. On November 9, Tesla China announced an increase in the price of the long-lasting version of Model 3 and Model Y, including an increase of 1500 yuan for the new version of Model 3, starting at 297400 yuan, and an increase of 2500 yuan for Model Y, starting at 302400 yuan. In the earlier October 27th, Tesla raised the price of the Model Y high-performance version by 14000 yuan.

As a result, Tesla has increased the prices of all domestic models on sale in China, but although the prices of all Model 3 and Model Y models have experienced two rounds of increases, the increase is relatively small each time. At present, there are three Model Y models on sale, with the standard rear wheel drive version priced at 266400 yuan, the all-wheel drive long-range version priced at 302400 yuan, and the all-wheel drive high-performance version priced at 363900 yuan. There are two Model 3 models on sale. The price of the new version is 261400 yuan and the long-lasting version is 297400 yuan.

Before that, Tesla's official customer service staff responded that the price rise was due to the rising cost, and if the cost fell, it would definitely lower the price. For a long time, Tesla has adhered to the strategy of cost pricing, but in the context of chip shortage easing and lithium prices falling sharply, market analysts rarely take this factor into consideration, but refer more to the relationship between supply and demand. For Tesla "squeeze toothpaste" price increase, some netizens think that this is to create a sense of tension, allowing consumers to issue orders to pick up the car as soon as possible. Some analysts said that Tesla is not worried about selling, while a number of independent brands have announced price cuts, their reverse price increases can emphasize "independent pricing power", which is not subject to the overall layout direction of China's auto market.

In addition, profitability is also one of the reasons for the price increase. In the third quarter, Tesla's revenue was $23.35 billion, up 9% from a year earlier, but below analysts' expectations of $24.06 billion; net profit was $1.853 billion, down 44% from a year earlier, below market expectations of $2.231 billion; and gross profit margin was 17.9%. Has fallen to the lowest level in four years.

In the short term, there is also a factor that production capacity "falls short of demand" behind Tesla's price increase. According to Tesla's Chinese official website, at present, the delivery cycle of Tesla Model 3 long-term flight rejuvenation version has been raised to 6-9 weeks, and that of Model Y long-term flight version has been raised to 6-8 weeks.

Tesla sold 72115 vehicles wholesale in China in October, second only to BYD, including 28626 domestic retail vehicles, according to data released by the Federation of passengers. It is understood that the annual production capacity of Tesla's Shanghai factory has increased from 750000 vehicles / year in the second quarter to more than 950000 vehicles / year in the third quarter. With the new versions of Model 3 and Model Y listed one after another, even if the Shanghai factory is operating at full capacity, the market is still in short supply, and Tesla is not only facing the Chinese market, but also continues to supply many countries in Asia-Pacific and Europe.

As one of Tesla's most important markets, China temporarily chooses the latter between "sales volume" and "profit". At present, Tesla is still far from the annual sales target, or continues to impact the annual target by means of price adjustment. In the first three quarters, Tesla delivered a total of 1.3241 million cars worldwide, an increase of 45.73 percent over the same period last year. Tesla CEO Musk said in the third quarter earnings call that Tesla kept his original annual delivery target of 1.8 million vehicles unchanged, which meant that Tesla needed to deliver about 475000 new cars in the fourth quarter to meet his expectations.

On the one hand, the competition and promotion among car enterprises will provide a stable support to the car market at the end of the year and help the car market hit new highs, but more and more car companies are cutting prices to impact sales. In fact, the competitive pressure is also further intensifying. In the future, more car companies will join the ranks of promotion and price reduction, and Tesla is an exception.

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