Tesla Offers New Discount on Model Y in China – CleanTechnica

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In addition to the US incentives Tesla has been offering to try to move more vehicles, the company is also trying to stimulate sales in China in a few ways.

Tesla Model Y Discounts & Options in China

First of all, if you take delivery of the two cheaper Tesla Model Y options by December 31, you can get a RMB 10,000 ($1,380) discount. The discount doesn’t apply to the Performance version. The following are the three Model Y variants currently on sale in China:

• Model Y RWD — RMB 249,900 ($34,508)
• Model Y Long Range AWD — RMB 290,900 ($40,170)
• Model Y Performance AWD — RMB 354,900 ($49,008)

Tesla Model 3 Incentives

The Tesla Model 3 isn’t eligible for these discounts, but it has other incentives. Tesla also extended a 5-year, 0% interest financing incentive for the Model 3 and Model Y through the end of the year. This has been in place since early April. “Over the past few months, the EV maker would essentially announce a one-month extension of that incentive at the end of each month, both calling it time-limited,” CnEVPost reports. Sound familiar? The most recent extension (before this one) was till November 30.

Why Is the Model Y Getting More Incentives?

The Tesla Model Y may be getting more incentives for a couple of reasons. One is that it has a refresh coming up and Tesla wants to move out every single Model Y it can before switching over to the updated version. Another potential reason is that there isn’t enough demand for all of the Model Ys Tesla produces. Tesla produces and sells a lot more Model Ys in China and worldwide. In fact, through the first 10 months of the year, Tesla sold almost triple as many Model Ys (373,852 versus 126,833). That’s great for the Model Y, but if demand dips a bit, that also means there are a lot more of the crossovers being produced that need to find buyers. Or maybe it’s a combo of both factors.

The updated Model Y (codename: Model Y Juniper) is widely expected to go into production and start getting delivered in 2025, probably early 2025. Reportedly, Tesla is also aiming to ramp up production a lot for this model. The upgraded Model 3 didn’t get much of a bump — or a very long bump — from the refresh, and some people shy away from a car without stalks, so we’ll have to wait to see how far enthusiasm for a new Tesla Model Y with more tech and some better features fares. Though, in the case of the Model Y, there may be some extra upgrades, including with extra seat options.

Tesla Keeps Pulling Demand Levers

Several years ago, in response to some murmuring about potential weakening of demand for Tesla vehicles, we published some articles discussing the different “levers” Tesla could “pull” in order to stimulate more consumer demand. There were various options. In the past year or so, though, the company has been pulling more and more of these. Sales have been flat, or even down a little, so far in 2024, a far cry from the 50% annual growth that was discussed and forecasted for years. The fact that Tesla keeps adding incentives really only tells me one thing.

Whether an update to the Model Y will turn things around for the company and it will see booming growth again, or higher production of the Cybertruck will provide that, or improved “Full Self Driving” (FSD) will do that, we’ll see. I have an open mind about it all for sure, but Tesla’s actions and the trends with those all lead to one conclusion for now.