Tesla customers protest against company discounts
2023.01.07 08:06
Tesla customers protest against company discounts
Budrigannews.com – Several hundred Tesla (NASDAQ:) Over the weekend, owners gathered at the automaker’s showrooms and distribution centers in China to demand credit and rebates following sudden price cuts that they claimed meant they had paid too much for electric cars they had purchased earlier.
About 200 new Tesla Model Y and Model 3 buyers gathered on Saturday at a Tesla delivery center in Shanghai to protest the American automaker’s decision on Friday to lower prices for the second time in three months.
Many stated that they had believed that Tesla would not reduce the prices it charges for its vehicles as abruptly or as significantly as the automaker recently announced in an effort to boost sales and support production at its Shanghai plant. A government subsidy that was set to end at the end of 2022 also pushed many people to make their final purchases.
Social media videos showed crowds at Tesla stores and delivery centers in Chengdu, Shenzhen, and other Chinese cities, indicating a wider consumer backlash.
Tesla’s electric vehicle prices in China are now between 13% and 24% lower than they were in September thanks to Friday’s unexpected discounts.
According to analysts, Tesla’s move was likely to boost its sales, which had fallen in December, and force other EV manufacturers to cut prices at a time when demand for battery-powered cars was falling in the largest market in the world.
Tesla operates without dealerships and has made transparent pricing a part of its brand image, whereas established automakers frequently offer discounts to manage inventory and keep factories running when demand is low.
“It may be a normal business practice, but this is not how a responsible enterprise should behave,” a Tesla owner with the surname Zhang said on Saturday while protesting at the company’s delivery center in Shanghai’s Minhang suburb.
He and the other Tesla owners, who said they bought their vehicles in the last few months of 2022, said they were dissatisfied with the sudden price cut on Friday and Tesla’s lack of communication with new buyers.
According to Zhang, the police organized a meeting between Tesla employees and the owners, at which the owners presented a list of demands, including compensation or other credits and an apology. He also mentioned that Tesla employees had agreed to respond by Tuesday.
At the Shanghai protest, about a dozen police officers were visible, and most of the videos of the other demonstrations also showed a significant police presence at the Tesla sites.
Although widespread protests against COVID-19 restrictions at the end of November in Chinese cities and top universities have put authorities on higher alert, protests are not uncommon in China. Over the years, people have demonstrated in large numbers over issues such as financial or property scams.
On Saturday, additional videos that appeared to show Tesla owners protesting were also uploaded to Chinese social media platforms.
“Return the money, refund our cars” was chanted by a crowd in one video, which Reuters confirmed was shot at a Tesla store in Chengdu’s southwest.
Another, which appeared to have been shot in Beijing, showed police cars approaching a Tesla store to disperse the crowd.
Reuters was unable to verify either video’s content.
A spokesperson for Tesla China told Reuters on Saturday that the company has no plans to compensate customers who purchased their vehicles prior to the most recent price cut.
When asked to comment on the protests, he did not.
In 2021, China accounted for about a third of Tesla’s global sales, and the company’s 20,000-person Shanghai factory is its single most productive and profitable location.
At a time when Tesla is a year away from announcing the Cybertruck, its next new vehicle, analysts have expressed optimism regarding the potential for Tesla’s price cuts to drive sales growth.
Bill Russo, the Shanghai-based head of the consulting firm Automobility Ltd., stated, “Nowhere else in the world is Tesla faced with the kind of competitors that they have here [in China].”
“They are in a much larger market for electric vehicles with businesses that can price more aggressively than they can right now,”
After a dissatisfied customer climbed on a car at the Shanghai auto show in 2021 to express her dissatisfaction with the way the company dealt with her complaints about the brakes in her vehicle, Tesla experienced a crisis of public relations.
In response, Tesla expressed regret to Chinese customers for not responding to their complaints sooner.
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