Tesla Massively Reduces Prices. Here Are the New Prices and Why They Did It

Tesla makes their vehicles more affordable in regions around the world

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Tesla dropped prices on all models in several countries, which should not be surprising. It's unlikely it has anything to do with the company's plummeting value on the stock market, a perceived lower demand, or an effort to qualify for tax credits. Tesla's entire price drop game plan was forecast just a few days ago by a Tesla executive in China.

Tesla does not have a communications department. All the company information comes from its website, social media accounts or Elon Musk's Twitter account. That's why it was worth finding a translation of a rare interview a Tesla vice president gave to the media in China on January 9, 2023.

When Tesla Executives Speak, You Should Listen

Tao Lin spoke to reporters just days after Tesla dropped the prices in China. Her answers provided reasons behind the lower prices, not only in China but worldwide. "Some media said that we lowered the price because we couldn't sell anymore. I think it's really nonsense," Lin said. "I personally think that the price adjustment reflects our better planning for the supply chain in a sense, and what level the vehicle cost will be, and then we make such adjustments according to this estimate."

Lin then explained, "The price adjustment of a product is actually a forecast of the company's cost changes in the next period of time. The biggest difference between 2023 and last year is that the epidemic has basically passed. We believe that the supply chain has returned to normal to a large extent, and there will be no such unpredictable shortages of materials as in previous years, which brought cost uncertainty."

Tesla Supply Chain Certainty Indicated in Q3

During the third quarter earnings call, Musk spoke about supply chain issues that had hampered production during the pandemic. But he also discussed how the company had advanced in other areas and was optimistic about future production. "What we are seeing is practical improvements as we redesign the whole supply chain and all of the elements that go into a battery cell. We're figuring out dramatic efficiencies."

Zachary Kirkhorn, Tesla's Chief Financial Officer, answered a question about the Inflation Reduction Act during that same earnings call. There were not many details available at that time. Still, he stated, "it's difficult to fully determine the eligibility criteria, but we believe Tesla is very well-positioned to capture a significant share of that for solar storage and also electric vehicles."

Tesla's Transparency is the Problem

Some customers in China who bought a Tesla just before the price cut were furious. That's likely to be the case in other countries as well. However, consumers need to remember that Tesla is a direct sales model. How quickly everyone forgets auto dealers have been changing prices for decades.

Lin gave this example, "for a traditional car, everyone buys it at a different price at a dealer, so you don't really know whether the price you bought is the lowest or not, and you don't know what price other people are buying. Is it fair to consumers?"

Tesla has not only changed the automotive industry by making electric vehicles a viable product, but it also changed how people buy cars. "We adopted some relatively new concepts, such as the direct sales model, such as price adjustment strategies, and we hope to gradually make everyone feel that these concepts are feasible. Under the direct sales model, the prices are completely open and transparent, without discounts or price increases, and everyone is the same at the same time."

Price Reductions in the U.S.

We suspected these price cuts were coming as the EV tax credit in the US listed all Model 3s and Model Ys as qualifying for the tax credit. All variations of the Model Y now qualify for the $7,500 tax credit in the US.

The price cuts also affect many countries around the world such as Spain, France and Portugal. Although the reduced pricing of the Model S and Model X appears to be limited.

Below is a list of the new and previous prices of all Teslas models in the US and the percentage changed.

Tesla Files Patents for Wireless Charging the Robotaxi

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Tesla has filed four patents for wireless charging. Previously, Tesla acquired the experience and skills of Wiferion’s engineering team in an acquisition in June 2023. Tesla quickly sold off the company but kept the company’s engineers. This was an acqui-hire, where large companies rapidly onboard top talent by purchasing a company for human capital, rather than products, services, or intellectual products.

Following the Wiferion acquisition, Tesla showed off a wireless charging mat several times and even confirmed they are working on wireless inductive home charging. We expected this to arrive with the Cybertruck, but now we hope to see more details at the upcoming Robotaxi reveal event in October, at the Warner Bro.’s studio in Hollywood.

Wireless Charging Patents

First Patent

The first of the four patents looks at temperature sensors and applications for wireless charging. Tesla intends to track the temperatures across both the wireless charging pad, as well as the inductive charging coils in the vehicle. The third patent details how they’re planning to use this in an innovative way.

WIPO

Second Patent

The second patent is a shorting switch, which is designed to prevent or reduce leakage of energy to ground sources near the wireless charging mat. This shorting switch is used to create a short with the receiving side of the inductive charging, essentially making energy transfer faster and more efficient – while also reducing the amount of energy that is leaked out elsewhere. We’ll leave this one for the electrical engineers to explain in our forums.

Third Patent

The third patent is actually the wireless charging circuit itself, and how to manufacture it. This one is straightforward and explains how Tesla intends to design and build the prototype inductive wireless charging mats. Beyond the basic design, this document also details how Tesla intends to lay out the inductive charging coils and how it expects the entire assembly to function – which includes a small cable that runs to a wall-mounted energy source.

Fourth Patent

The final patent is for intelligently estimating and adapting to variations in wireless charging layouts and systems. This one is probably the most interesting of the four patents, as it involves adjusting the coils in the mat to dynamically account for the positioning of the vehicle, as well as responding to the information from the first patent – the temperature sensors.

Essentially, by varying the coil induction across the mat, Tesla intends to dynamically aim the wireless charger at different parts of the inductive coils in the vehicle, thereby reducing heat. This patent will also help Tesla to determine the adequate charge speed and other key information they may need to relay to the vehicle, or back to fleet management software.

Cybertruck Inductive Charging

While the Cybertruck never actually arrived with inductive charging, it was noted in the Service Manual to have 2 Inductive Charging Headers, so it is ready to be upgraded to have Inductive Charging support. We expect that Tesla will release this as a purchasable upgrade for the Cybertruck sometime in the future – likely as a package with the Inductive Charging Mat.

Robotaxi Inductive Charging

The Robotaxi will likely be the first of Tesla’s vehicles to feature inductive charging – which. makes sense given its autonomous nature. Plugging in a NACS charger will likely be fairly difficult to automate, and the 5-10% efficiency loss of wireless charging isn’t a huge deal. It’s possible Tesla chose this route due to cost, as having an automated NACS cable like the “snake” prototype we saw years ago could be costly.

Having a simple parking stall with an inductive mat on it, alongside all the tech and supplies needed to automatically clean and sanitize the Robotaxi makes far more sense. This means that a Robotaxi will be able to roll in, charge and clean itself, and then roll out to go pick up more customers. Tesla is planning a super-efficient system here that requires minimal intervention from real humans.

Essentially, by effectively managing the Robotaxi fleet, Tesla can offset the increased time that wireless charging would take, and also reduce the amount of waste energy by charging when energy is cheapest. While this could prevent Tesla from taking advantage of the sheer battery mass of a Robotaxi fleet – by selling power when it’s expensive and travel demand is low – this doesn’t make it impossible.

Smartphone manufacturers have demonstrated reverse wireless charging with the inductive charging coils already present in modern smartphones. We could see Tesla low-power bi-directional charging in the future too.

We’re looking forward to seeing Tesla unveil this at the upcoming Robotaxi event. It’ll be something special, for sure.

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Tesla Adds Ability to Swipe Left and Right in Browser

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Tesla has made a spate of improvements to its vehicle software recently, starting with the big Spring Update, and then the Summer Update more recently. While we see most of the updates mentioned in the release notes, Tesla often also adds smaller quality-of-life improvements along the way.

Browser Controls

When using the Tesla Browser in the vehicle, you can now swipe left and right to go back or forward a page in your browser history. When you start swiping on the screen, Tesla’s Chromium-based browser will now display an arrow that slides out from the left or right. The circular icon is initially white, meaning that the action won’t be executed, but if you continue moving to the left/right, the icon will eventually turn blue. The blue icon means that the action will be executed once you let go of the screen.

This is a simple quality-of-life improvement that makes using the built-in browser easier.

We’re happy to see updates like these come to the browser, whose last major feature was the full-screen button that was added in update 2024.14.

Future Browser Improvements

While we’re on the topic, let’s look at some future Tesla web browser improvements we’d love to see.

Access to the Mic

Full access to the vehicle microphone isn’t allowed through the web browser right now. That means if you want to get into a Discord, Slack, or Teams call, you’ll only be able to listen – not speak. All of these apps fully function in the Tesla browser for sending messages, but are fairly limited for meetings.

Better Bookmarks

Tesla’s current bookmark system is simple and barebones. You can bookmark a page and give it a name. Once you visit a bookmarked page enough, it’ll show up as an icon in the center of the browser when you go to the homepage.

However, it's difficult to keep a larger set of bookmarks since there aren’t any organizational tools provided. A better bookmark system or the ability to sync bookmarks would be a welcomed feature.

Custom Homepage

Tesla’s current homepage in its browser is simply just a Tesla logo in black or white, depending on whether your car is in dark mode or not. A custom homepage that provides widgets with basic local news, stock information or other details would be fantastic. We’d ask for weather too, but the recent Summer update shows weather at the top of your screen.

If you’ve got more ideas for the fairly barebones Tesla web browser, let us know.

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