While Xiaomi’s first electric vehicle, Xiaomi SU7, is going strong, Tesla’s Model Y in China has increased its price by RMB 5,000. On the other hand, Tesla will announce delivery figures for the first quarter of 2024 today at the earliest, and first-quarter earnings on April 17th.
Tesla China announced that the price of Model Y has been increased to RMB 263,900, Model Y Long Range Edition to RMB 304,900, and Model Y High Performance Edition to RMB 368,900, with a RMB 5,000 (around USD 690) increase for all models. In addition, Model 3 and Model Y can be equipped with free Star Gray paint, which originally cost RMB 12,000, but the original free color scheme of “Pure Black” has been changed to an additional price of RMB 8,000.
On the other hand, before Tesla announced its first-quarter delivery figures, a number of Wall Street analysts lowered their delivery forecasts, mainly due to the diminishing effect of price cuts to boost sales, weak demand and intensified competition. Tesla’s first-quarter delivery forecast was lowered from 469,400 units to 425,000 units, and its 2024 forecast was lowered from 1,998,000 units to 1,954,000 units. Citi also lowered its first-quarter deliveries from 473,000 to 429,000 units, which represents a 2% year-on-year growth.
Deutsche Bank lowered its forecast for Tesla’s first-quarter deliveries from 427,000 to 414,000, and for the full year it predicted deliveries of 1.91 million units, down from its original forecast of 1.96 million. The bank pointed out that although Tesla’s price-cutting strategy in China and Europe may boost sales in the short term, it will continue to put pressure on margins and earnings in the long term.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush who has been bullish on Tesla for a long time, also said last week that Tesla still holds a leading position in the electric vehicle market, but a series of demand problems it has faced recently have caused its first-quarter delivery expectations to be sharply lowered. The bank said Tesla is currently in a “period of stress” and that first-quarter deliveries may be a nightmare due to weak demand in China, with deliveries expected to fall 3 to 4 percent year-over-year.
Dan Ives added that this is a critical time for Musk to get Tesla through this period of turbulence or risk darker days, but that it remains bullish on Tesla’s FSD technology as a key pillar of disruptive technology, but that investor patience is running out, and that Musk talks a lot about developing AI outside of Tesla.
