Americans are angry at being ‘tricked’ by Tesla, is this the end for Elon Musk?

“I will never buy a Tesla product again. Their lack of respect for their customers speaks volumes. I used to really like Tesla, but now I’m going to move on to competitors like Lucid or Rivian,” Simmons told Bloomberg.

Face slap

According to Bloomberg news, Marianne Simmons is a Tesla fan when she bought herself a Model Y in September 2022 for more than $ 77,000. Then suddenly, Elon Musk’s company drastically reduced the price of this car, now at $ 13,000 lower than when Simmons bought the Model Y.

“I feel like I’ve been tricked. I think I’m being taken advantage of as a consumer. In just a few months I lost 13,306 USD. This is a huge discount that can affect a lot of customers who have bought Tesla,” said Ms. Simmons, who lives in Florida-USA.

In fact, this is the situation of countless people who have bought Tesla electric cars when Elon Musk deliberately reduced the prices of cars to stimulate sales as well as qualify for a tax support of $ 7,500 from US government with each order.

Tesla’s deep price reduction not only causes products that have been purchased previously to depreciate, but also affects the used electric car market of the company. Meanwhile, many owners feel frustrated when their assets suddenly evaporate up to 20% of their value.

“For many Tesla electric vehicle owners, this move by the company is like a slap in the face. Anyone who bought a Tesla recently will be the most upset and want the company to change its policy,” said Ivan Drury, director of research website Edmunds.com.

According to Mr. Drury, Tesla’s move will entail many extremely dangerous consequences. The price of its used electric cars will fall without stopping as consumers fear devaluation, especially in the context that the electric vehicle industry is still growing with more and more players participating.

Why spend tens of thousands of dollars buying a used car when users can buy a new Tesla car for only a small difference, or even switch to other new companies’ cars?

Mass discount

After the price reductions in the US and China, Tesla recently decided to reduce prices in Europe and North America before an unsatisfactory fourth quarter of 2022 business results.

In the home market of the US, Tesla has reduced the price of Model Y by up to 20% and its most advanced models have also been cut by up to $ 21,000. A series of other European markets such as Germany, UK and France also reduced prices just a week after Teslan lowered prices in China.

This move by Tesla has caused many Chinese customers to flock to stores to protest, while Western social networks have also been flooded with criticism.

This is a bad sign for Tesla shareholders as the company has not met its sales target for the last three quarters of 2022. Along with the burning of Tesla shares to get money for Twitter, more and more shareholders are calling for Elon Musk to resign or return a stock bonus worth tens of billions of dollars.

Bloomberg news agency said this price cut will reduce Tesla’s profit margin, but Elon Musk has said he would rather pursue sales than profit margins.

In the past year, Tesla’s car sales increased 40% to 1.3 million units, less than Elon Musk’s target of 50%. Particularly in the fourth quarter of 2022, the company sold only 405,278 cars, lower than the forecast of 420,760 units of Bloomberg.

Although still growing, many experts believe that Tesla’s position, market share and demand for products have declined as more new players join.

Termination

In the used car market, data from the largest US used car brokerage Manheim shows that a 1-year used Tesla electric car depreciated by 26% in the second half of 2022, much higher than the decline. only 15% of other luxury cars at the same price.

With 3-year-old cars, Tesla depreciated 30% compared to 17% of other luxury cars.

Mr. Austin Flack, a television producer in Los Angeles-USA, once offered to sell a Tesla Model 3 produced in 2018 for $ 51,000, but had to reduce it to $ 36,000 at the end of December 2022 and said it might be must be further reduced to $30,000.

Of course, people like Mr. Flack are very upset when suddenly their fortune of several tens of thousands of dollars evaporates quickly without any apology, explanation or compensation.

“There is no number for me to contact. I tried to find a way to contact but Tesla did not respond,” said Jack Bradham, who spent up to 69,000 USD to buy a Tesla car in December 2022 only to see the car depreciate by up to 12,000 USD at the store in December. 1/2023 angrily said.

Mr. Bradham said Tesla should compensate customers who bought cars with free charging on its network of charging stations or with free app updates.

However, for Tesla fans like Ms. Simmons, this action of Elon Musk is an end.

“I will never buy a Tesla product again. Their lack of respect for their customers speaks volumes. I used to really like Tesla, but now I’m going to move on to competitors like Lucid or Rivian,” Simmons told Bloomberg.

*Source: Bloomberg