BEIJING, January 6  (TMTPOST)— Tesla Inc. offered largest ever price cuts in China, highlighting pressure weighed on the electric vehicle (EV) superpower amid weakening demand.

Source: Visual China

The starting price of the SUV model Model Y was lowered from RMB288,900 to RMB259,900 (US$37,875), down about 10%, while the most affordable model Model 3 started at RMB229,900, 13% lower than previous, Tesla China’s website showed on Friday. Following a range of the starting price of Model Y and Model 3 sold in China were down to new low and about 43% and 30% cheaper than those on sale in U.S.

 This is Tesla’s second promotion through direct cuts in more than two months. In October, 2022, Tesla slashed prices for all the versions of Model 3 and Model Y, and price of the Model Y Long Range saw the biggest decline of 9.4%.  

Tesla also trimmed starting prices of Model 3 and Model Y by around 10% in Japan the same day, widening the price war in the start of the year. The latest price cuts came as Tesla was overtaken by Chinese rival BYD even its delivery in China last year maintained robust growth.

In the beginning of this month, Tesla said it delivered 405,278 vehicles in the fourth quarter, refreshing its record broke in the previous quarter. But the delivery still missed the Wall Street estimates as analysts forecasted the EV giant to ship around 427,000 units, according to FactSet. With the less-than-expected delivery for a third straight quarter, Tesla posted a total of about 1.31 million units for 2022, rising 40% from the previous year. Tesla not only failed to meet its own annual target of 1.5 million but also widened gap between BYD. BYD set new record for ten months in a row with sales of 235,197 new energy vehicles (NEVs) in December, bringing its annual sales to 1.8635 million vehicles, increasing 208.64% from 2021.

The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) estimated Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory deliver a total of more than 710,000 vehicles in 2022, increasing 48% from the previous year, and out of these vehicles, there are more than 450,000 SUV model Model Ys, just shy of Tesla China annual delivery during the year 2021. However, Tesla’s outstanding performance in China was at the cost of various forms of price wars. The EV giant has launched five rounds of promotion including price cuts and various subsidies, such as allows a one-time subsidy of RMB8,000 for qualified buyers’ final payment that announced in mid September.

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