It’s FAR better for this company at this stage to lower price to keep demand and supply in sync THAN to throttle production.. Q3, we had production and delivery essentially EQUAL.. going INTO Q3 from Q2 numbers, we had ~ 20K surplus of production vs. delivery. Where did those cars go? If they rolled into Q3, and were sold (at a discount we know), then the ~ 10-12% reduction in production due to factory shut downs was sufficient production reduction to equal demand - reduction I would say. I think we’re going into an even slower period for consumer interest and demand, we know that to some extent already.
So, better to sell the cars at a discount than to even open the window a TAD that might indicate that there is a demand / supply imbalance either at the company level or sector level, or just overall macro level.
If Tesla for example dropped a shift (shift drop is better than slowing the line) in any one of the three primary factories, or offered more model variants (that is essentially a line slow DOWNER with the hope that it adds to margin), then analysts would jump all over this.
With the price drops now, on say a M3 RWD, including federal and most state tax credits, cost is about ~25-27K.. that is essentially the price on a good USED car these days, and probably one of the lowest priced EV on the road.
