Tesla raises price of its Shanghai-made Model Y electric car, shrugging off price war squeezing its rivals in China

Name: ‘Overtaking on a bend’: how China’s EV industry charged ahead to dominate the global market
Uploaded: 2024-04-01T04:40:48.000Z
Duration: 12 min 53 s
Description: ‘Overtaking on a bend’: how China’s EV industry charged ahead to dominate the global market

The price of the Model Y rose by as much as 1.9 per cent in a move analysts said is unlikely to affect sales

It sends ‘a clear message to the Chinese EV market that the US carmaker is not worried about the bruising price war,’ says one car sales manager

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Tesla sold 456,394 Model Y cars in mainland China last year, up 44.8 per cent from 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

Daniel Renin Shanghai

Published: 12:40pm, 1 Apr 2024Updated: 12:43pm, 1 Apr 2024

Tesla raised the price of its Shanghai-made Model Y cars on Monday, bucking the trend set by a discount war that is squeezing the profit margins of most of its rivals in China, the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) market.

The basic Model Y is now priced at 263,900 yuan (US$36,519), up 1.9 per cent from 258,900 yuan, according to the Texas-based carmaker’s local website.

The Long Range version went up in price by 5,000 yuan, or 1.7 per cent, to 304,900 yuan, while the Performance edition saw an increase of 5,000 yuan, or 1.4 per cent, to 368,900 yuan.

Tesla kept the prices of its Model 3 vehicles assembled at the Gigafactory in Shanghai unchanged.

“The small price increases will have only a limited impact on Tesla’s sales since many Chinese consumers still believe in its technology and quality,” said Tian Maowei, a sales manager at Yiyou Auto Service in Shanghai.

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‘Overtaking on a bend’: how China’s EV industry charged ahead to dominate the global market

“But the price adjustment represents a clear message to the Chinese EV market that the US carmaker is not worried about the bruising price war.”