One of the big stories in the auto industry recently has been Tesla’s sales in the first quarter of this year. Specifically, it’s that Tesla’s sales were down — even as some of its competitors saw an increase in EV sales during the same time, as the New York Times revealed. There are plenty of possible reasons for this, including Elon Musk’s behavior on social media and the growing compatibilty of non-Tesla vehicles with Tesla’s charger network.
All of this might help explain why it’s now a little easier to purchase a Model Y. As Autoblog’s Chris Teague reports, Tesla has cut prices on the Model Y — and, given its qualification for the federal EV rebate, it means that one configuration of the Model Y can now be had for under $35,000.
That data, in turn, comes from Twin Birch co-founder Sawyer Merritt, who ran the numbers and found that the rear-wheel-drive version of the Model Y is $33,890 with the rebate factored in. (Other configurations are more expensive.) Still, given that the road to affordable EVs is still a difficult one for many American drivers, the fact that there are discounts to be had on the Model Y could be the tipping point for some considering an EV.
Tesla Is Changing Gears on its No-Advertising Strategy
The automaker has historically focused on word of mouth salesInvestor Gary Black of The Future Fund was cited in the Times‘ reporting as being critical of Tesla’s existing sales strategy. He also posted an interesting analysis of Tesla data on the social network formerly known as Twitter, writing that “we estimate TSLA days of finished goods inventory has now ballooned to 29 days at the end of 1Q, assuming 75 trading days per quarter. This is the highest since 2019 1Q.” That’s another factor that could play a role in the Model Y discounts — for however long they’ll last.
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