Carl Raymond
Active Member
The good thing about the Chinese is that they are willing to pay a premium for imported goods since Chinese made goods(such as Chinese branded cars) will lose them face.
People I know paid good money just to have a certain letter on their license plate because they are more rare(therefore showing off your wealth). Most who can afford a Mercedes will not consider a C or E class because when people call these class of cars in Chinese, it's translated to "Small Benz" and not "Big Benz..aka S class". The color black has been coined as the "gives you the most face" color for Benz so the manufacture up charges for this color, while BMW up charges white for the same reason.
So all Tesla needs to do is to get their cars in the hands of some rich celebrities and the rest will be history. In fact the only thing that can hurt the Tesla brand in China is a cheaper model 2 or something down the road. The Chinese will stop paying a premium for the brand if any peasant can buy them. Good thing some of this tariffs can price the commoners out.
Background: I'm Chinese who have family in Beijing.
If it's an issue, that a cheaper model takes the gloss off the more upmarket model, Tesla could easily get into sub-branding. The model 2 could be a not-a-tesla "Edison" or whatever.
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