Everyone wanted Tesla to finally introduce the long-promised $35,000 Model S, and they finally did. This brought a lot of attention to Tesla, both positive and negative, apparently. Electrek reports that Tesla’s price cuts have caused such a great concern that Tesla car owners are literally protesting in some regions of the world.
Many customers are angry over Tesla’s new price cuts because in some regions of the world, recently purchase vehicles have been devalued by as much as over 40%. Because of the anger, car owners took to themselves to literally protest the new price changes.
Tesla moved to an online sales strategy that involves customers ordering their new cars from Tesla’s website. The company moved to close majority of their physical store locations and asked customers to order online. Tesla has used this new sales strategy as justification to bring these new savings to the masses. Although, the savings overseas have been significant enough to cause protests.
One of the locations is Taiwan, where, for example, the price of Model S P100D was cut almost in half due to the recent price changes by Tesla. This resulted in savings of over $100,000 for new customers. This angered customers so much that they took to protest at Tesla stores and at Superchargers.
Taiwan is not alone, either. In China, the price reductions have been quite significant and protests made their way into the Chinese media. Global Times reported that some Tesla owners saying the following:
“I received Tesla’s Model X on February 25, and I only drove this car for five days before Tesla announced a price reduction of 174,300 yuan ($25,989.87). I’m probably the most unlucky new buyer … That’s unfair,”
Some Chinese protestors went so far they put signs on the Tesla stores:
This translated into (roughly): “Don’t buy now, buy tomorrow at a discount.”
Tesla has a lot on its plate to handle. Customers all over the world are disappointed that the company introduced huge price discounts that devalued their cars significantly. While some are against the new price reductions, there are many others thanking Tesla for reducing because it allows the company to reach more customers and introduce them to the world of cars from Tesla.
