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Fed Tax is cutting in half. What is Tesla’s strategy?

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So, end of the year. 4 people I know already bought or waiting delivery of a Tesla to take advantage of the $7500 Fed tax credit. These are great cars but $7500 off helps a lot. Should be an excellent quarter for Tesla.

But, what will happen after that? Fed tax credit goes down (half). I doubt Tesla will lower its prices to accommodate for this. What do you think is their plan is to keep sales up? What incentives could they offer? Or, do you think they will just rely on the reputation of the car and do nothing?
 
I'm hoping for some good inventory model deals come January to jump into another Model S lease. My current MS lease ends Sunday and I'm feeling really sad right now. lol

I am thinking that right now, a lot of inventory models are getting snagged up with last ditch effort by people to get in on the remaining $7500 rebates by year end. Usually, between Christmas and New years is a great time for deep discounts but with Tesla, this year is a bit of an exception to that rule due to $7500 being on the table. So I'm hoping what happens is, come new year, the buy will slow down dramatically and cause some great inventory deals to pop up.

Maybe I'm wrong but I'm willing to be patient and see...
 
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So, end of the year. 4 people I know already bought or waiting delivery of a Tesla to take advantage of the $7500 Fed tax credit. These are great cars but $7500 off helps a lot. Should be an excellent quarter for Tesla.

But, what will happen after that? Fed tax credit goes down (half). I doubt Tesla will lower its prices to accommodate for this. What do you think is their plan is to keep sales up? What incentives could they offer? Or, do you think they will just rely on the reputation of the car and do nothing?
You know four people getting an S/X right now? Wow, that's impressive intel re S/X demand.
If some of those buyers you know are getting 3s, however, the demand equation for Model 3 changes pretty smoothly in January as Tesla ships most volume to the EU and some to China, absorbing any (presumably temporary) demand drop-off in the US.
I don't have any thoughts on how S/X demand will be kept high in Jan/Feb, other than the fact that Chinese tariffs have been significantly lowered so hopefully Tesla can ship a bunch of Jan/Feb production of S/X across the Pacific.
 
Tesla will have a ton of options. Only they know which demand levers they will pull if they need some more customers.

First of all, after the first of they year they will all be exhausted and totally out of CPO, inventory and demos. They are pulling out all the stops currently to get every single car delivered before EOY. Friend just ordered her Model 3 dual motor today and she has already been matched up with exactly what she wanted. Super happy to be getting it before Christmas.

After the first of the year they will regroup. Take a look at how orders are coming in and their production capabilities. Will check to see how many batterys they can source and make their plans.
First they will restock the showrooms with new demos and service centers with loaners. They will build up their inventory as they are opening up several new international markets. Will begin to produce Right Hand Drive vehicle for several countries.

About then they should begin to see another rush of orders, for people wanting the get the $3,750 tax credits before June 30th.

Also about time to release the long awaited +/- $35,000 basic package Model 3. Believe that will bring in another flood of orders.

When they get their FUD option going, I believe that many early customers might be tempted to trade in their older Teslas to the the newer computers and the easy drive option.

If demand is lacking they can always add free supercharging, upgraded wheels, premium interior for the price of a standard interior, upgrades to a larger battery or a premium paint color for no extra charge, things like that.

By then they should have begun to take deposits for the Model Y CUV, and perhaps Pickup.

Last thing they will want to do is lower their selling prices.
 
Tesla will focus on sales outside of the US (that have been put on the back burner to the benefit of all of US).

And then Tesla may offer the Standard Range but still require the $5k premium interior, so they're still selling at least a profitable $40k EV.

To survive long-term, Tesla must focus on selling its products at a profit. Only way for any business to stay in business :rolleyes:
 
The Fed Tax break served its purpose. It is time for Tesla to deliver a vehicle that is compelling enough it does not need tax breaks.

That time has not arrived yet because there is still a $3750.00 tax break until June 30, 2019. And a lot of Model 3 buyers didn't have enough tax liability to use the full $7500 credit anyway. But Tesla will sell all the Model 3's they can make in Europe for the forseeable future. The car is that good.
 
  • First, effectively 9 months of production, mid to high-end US
  • Next, 6 months of production for Europe and other countries that don't have the credit time limits (as well as continuing in the US), probably take some time, maybe at first of year, to further optimize production lines
  • 2nd half of 2019, since production should be getting better, introduce the low end vehicles
  • Also, about time for China to start producing cars, further adding to profitability.