I can see a strategy of waiting for the other companies to put out EVs with slim slim margins (some may even release at a loss) Tesla then drops the prices putting them out of business... Rinse, wash, repeat. I'm a shareholder, but also a consumer. So I have mixed feeling on this strategy.
The difficulty with selling a product at a loss (really no such thing as "slim margins" when you consider development and factory costs) is that they won't sell many of them.
They are also limited by the amount of batteries that they can produce. No one doubts their ability to produce cars, but batteries are not their thing. I don't know what their capacity is, but since they have outsourced to 3rd parties, that means that the capacity will be shared among all the EV makers except Tesla and given a firm upper limit for the near future.
Tesla will start producing Model Y at three more factories (Gigafactory Berlin, Gigafactory Shanghai, and Gigafactory Texas) in 2021.
With trend of battery cost reduction and performance improvements along with new competition (Audi,VW,Ford) i think we will see major price reduction soon.
I don't expect Tesla to be under pressure from competition in the near future. In fact, I'm not even sure if the competition will even matter - there are so many gas cars on the road that the ICE makers may end up taking customers from their own ICE sales.
The factory in Berlin is producing the Model Y for customers in Europe who can now only buy the model 3. The same goes for China, though Tesla has started exporting. The Austin factory will increase capacity for the U.S., but also it will produce the cybertruck and the semi.
I hope they will release RWD model soon in $40-44K price range
You can already buy the Model 3 new at these prices. In order for Tesla to sell the Model Y for $40K, it would have to drop the Model 3 also.
I see no chance of something so radical in the next year.
Remember the Model 3 was supposed to be $35K and they just gave up on that. Sold the $35K model for a few days/hours or so. Prices aren't going to drop radically until Tesla can produce cheaper batteries at scale. More like 3-5 years.