Tesla slashes price in China again

financialexpress.com:

Tesla rolled out a new round of price cuts in China, sending auto stocks tumbling on concerns the move will respark a bruising price war that had shown signs of abating. 

The automaker reduced the price of the top-end Long-Range and Performance versions of the Model Y sport utility vehicle by 14,000 yuan ($1,900) to 299,900 yuan and 349,900 yuan respectively, according to a post on its Weibo account on Monday. An 8,000 yuan insurance subsidy on newly purchased Model 3 rear-wheel drive vehicles was also extended until the end of next month.

The cuts follow the likes of Geely Automobile Holdings’s Zeekr brand, which lowered prices as much as 37,000 yuan last week. Zhejiang Leapmotor Technologies cut by as much as 20,000 yuan at the start of the month. Tesla triggered the price war with an initial round of cuts last year before further discounts in January that left Tesla’s locally made cars as much as 14 percent cheaper than last year, and in some cases almost 50 percent less expensive than in the US and Europe.

“Price competition has been and will remain an ongoing theme in China’s auto market,” said Joanna Chen, an auto analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “Tesla is trying to keep volume rolling after July sales showed its slowing order intake without new models to attract Chinese buyers.”

Tesla’s China deliveries slumped 31 percent in July to the lowest level this year — just as the carmaker plans to soon unveil its revamped Model 3 “Highland” sedan from its Shanghai factory.

Clean car sales in China declined in July from June, though purchases shifted towards major players with BYD, Li Auto and Nio all reporting new sales records.