SHANGHAI: Tesla Inc. is offering shopping vouchers worth 3,000 yuan (RM1,904/US$420) to new customers here, in conjunction with a local government incentive program aimed at boosting consumption and the flagging economy.
The Austin, Texas-based automaker, which has a huge factory in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area, is giving the vouchers to 3,000 customers who order and register one of its locally-built Model 3 or Model Y electric vehicles in August.
While falling under the local government’s wider program providing discounts on groceries, movies and in other areas, the vouchers are yet another offer from Tesla to customers in China, where competition is heating up, not least with BYD Co., which makes plug-in hybrids as well as fully-electric cars.
China is the world’s biggest car market and leader in EV sales — retail sales of new energy vehicles totaled 647,000 in July, the Passenger Car Association said Wednesday. Latest data show Tesla delivered 93,680 vehicles from its Shanghai factory in June, including 74,212 to the local market.
With rival automakers muscling in, Tesla started cutting prices on its models from late last year. Others followed in what became a bruising price war that appeared to culminate about a month ago, when Tesla and 15 Chinese carmakers signed a pact that included a commitment to avoid “abnormal pricing practices.”
That specific pledge was retracted soon after, but authorities urged the companies to follow rules encouraging fair competition.
Subsequently, Tesla said it would give new car buyers 3,500 yuan in cash and a free enhanced autopilot trial if they were referred by a Tesla owner. That incentive program remains in place, the company said when announcing its latest offer on shopping vouchers Wednesday.
China’s top EV makers booked robust sales for July, with BYD’s deliveries of new energy vehicles climbing 61% from a year earlier to a monthly record of 262,161. Sales by Li Auto Inc., Nio Inc. and Xpeng Inc. also beat expectations.
A month earlier, none of China’s top carmakers had reached 50% of their 2023 sales targets, suggesting that price cuts and other incentives might persist.
