Tesla price cuts reversed, some stores to stay open

Electric car brand Tesla will readjust its prices once more and will not shut all of its stores, the company has confirmed in its latest blog post.

In an apparent admission that it went too far with its announced price cuts and store closures, Tesla says it will now raise prices “by about 3 per cent on average worldwide” and will reopen some stores “but with a smaller Tesla crew”.

The company says that it will keep “significantly more stores open” than it stated previously, and after having already shuttered 10 per cent of stores the company claims those ones “would have closed anyway, even if in-store sales made up our entire sales model”.

What that means for consumers is that Tesla will have to about-face on its global pricing cut announcement a fortnight ago, but the outcome for Australia is still to be confirmed. 

A Tesla Australia spokesperson suggested the big cuts to the Model S P100D (now known as the Model S Ludicrous Performance - a drop of $65,910 based on drive-away pricing in NSW) and Model X P100D (now known as the Model X Ludicrous Performance - lopped by $85,008 based on NSW d/a price) will not hold beyond March 18, 2019.

“Tesla will need to raise vehicle prices by about three per cent on average worldwide and price increases will only apply to the more expensive variants of Model 3 as well as Model S and Model X,” the spokesperson said, advising potential customers to act before the deadline to secure the current, lower pricing.

The Tesla sales process will remain an online procedure, but stores will remain open to facilitate buyer decisions.

“However, cars will still be available for test drives at stores at the potential Tesla owner’s request. Stores will also carry a small number of cars in inventory for customers who wish to drive away with a Tesla immediately,” the blog post states.

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