Tesla is dropping prices of unsold Model Y SUVs in the U.S. by thousands of dollars in an attempt to clear out an unprecedented backlog of inventory.
Many long-range and performance Model Ys are now selling for $5,000 less than their original price, while rear-wheel drive versions are seeing even bigger cuts of more than $7,000.
The discounts come as Tesla once again made far more vehicles than it sold in the last quarter. The company built 433,371 vehicles in the first quarter but only shipped 386,810, likely adding more than 40,000 EVs to its inventory glut. (Some of those vehicles were likely in transit, though Tesla didn’t say how many.) The company has built more cars than it shipped in seven of the last eight quarters, Bloomberg News noted Friday.
In January, Tesla warned sales growth could be “notably lower” in 2024 compared to previous years — a trend that has bothered every player in the market from big automakers like Ford to struggling upstarts like Lucid.
Tesla went through a typical end-of-quarter push to deliver as many cars as it could over the last few weeks, with lead designer Franz von Holzhausen once again pitching in to get them out the door in the final days. But Tesla also tried to boost sales in other ways. It announced a $1,000 price hike was coming to the Model Y, its most popular vehicle, on April 1. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also started mandating demos of the company’s advanced driver assistance system to all potential buyers. That software package costs $12,000 and can be a huge boost to the profit Tesla makes on a vehicle.
Musk has more or less admitted that Tesla has had to work harder to drum up demand for its vehicles lately. He has largely blamed the struggle on high interest rates, all while his company dramatically cut prices on the Model Y and Model 3 throughout 2023.