Elon never claimed there were no discounts. What he specifically said was that a Tesla buyer should never get a better price for the same car because s/he was a better negotiator than someone else buying the same car. That was what was occurring a year or so ago and that is what he put a stop to with his memo to employees. The shorts, the press, and many others never took the time to understand his words and instead created the sound bite that Tesla doesn't discount.
Tesla discounts inventory cars based on how many miles they have on the odo, how long it has been since they were produced, whether a newer version of some portion of the car has been or is about to be introduced, and whether a price reduction or option bundling has been announced since the inventory car was first priced. That said, once they establish the discounted price, it is not negotiable. You pay the same price as me if you buy the car. You can't negotiate a bigger discount that gets approved by "the manager". Nor will they "throw in" some options for free.
The current discounts are occurring because there have been price reductions and most likely because there is an impending upgrade that means that all of the cars currently in inventory will have to be discounted anyway when that upgrade occurs, most likely in early October.
Edit: I see my statements above about the discount policy were echoed by Tesla:
$30,000 Off Price Of Tesla Model S P100D Or Model X P100D Showroom Cars This Month
