This was reported by Elon Musk on Tesla’s last financial call, but it seems to have slipped under the radar. Reuters recently ran a short article on the news, which made me think I should as well.
As Tesla moves into the European and Chinese markets more, the company is expecting to see about twice as many sales there as in the United States and Canada by the end of the year.
Tesla sold 22,477 cars in 2013, most of which went to the US market. European sales started in the Fall.
In China, Tesla is going against the tide. It isn’t jacking up its prices there to “rip off” customers and make a bigger profit. The price will be higher due to shipping costs, duties, taxes, etc, but Tesla doesn’t intend to make any more off of it there than in the US. (The same goes for Europe, by the way.) In a market so fond of exclusive, expensive, luxury vehicles, it’s unclear how that will turn out — but one would think it will turn out very well.
It’s all about doing what’s right, Elon said. However, he thinks it also makes good business sense.
While it’s going to take a few months to get vehicles over to China, sales should be big there once they are available. “Towards the end of the year, we expect sales in those regions combined to be almost twice that of North America,” Elon said.
European sales have been decent so far, but not sky high. They’ve been great in Norway, but not so hot in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. However, word on the street this weekend is that Tesla Model S prices in Europe are getting a big cut:
Tesla PR in America hasn’t responded to our request for confirmation, but online sources show the drops are fairly substantial. In Germany, for example, Tesla has dropped almost 7,000 euros ($9,700 US at today’s exchange rate) off the price, down to 65,300 euros ($90,600), while in Holland, the new price is down 4,000 ($5,500) euros to 66,200 ($91,900). No reason was given for these drops, but we can’t help but suspect that demand isn’t too strong at the moment.
Maybe this has been in the plans all along, as logistics got worked out and streamlined. Who knows?
Image Credit: Tesla
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