SINGAPORE - Tesla has begun offering discounts to electric vehicle (EV) buyers in Singapore who agree to purchase existing inventory of the Model 3 or Model Y, a company sales representative said on Monday.
It is offering a $5,000 discount to EV purchasers who trade in an existing internal combustion vehicle and another $5,000 credit against the cost of the certificate of entitlement, which is needed to own a car in Singapore.
In addition, for qualified buyers who have a place for home installation, Tesla will provide the wall connector for charging, although the consumer has to pay for the cost of installation.
The limited-term discounts in Singapore come just days after Tesla cut prices in China, South Korea, Japan and Australia.
In China, Tesla has indicated longer waiting times for potential buyers of some versions of the Model Y, signalling that price cuts announced on Friday could be stoking demand in its second-largest market.
The waiting time for orders of the rear-wheel-drive and long-range versions of Model Y was a week longer on Monday than it had been on Friday, Tesla’s website showed.
Tesla cut prices in China by 6 per cent to 13.5 per cent on Friday in discounts that brought some of its cars to near competitor BYD’s best-selling models, in a step analysts read as a sign that a price war could be building at a time when demand there has faltered.
Angry Chinese owners who bought Tesla cars in late 2022 and missed out on the additional discount said they were waiting for a response from the company for their demand for compensation after a flurry of impromptu protests.
A Tesla representative told Reuters on Saturday that the company has no plans to compensate those buyers for the price cuts they had missed.
Some of the Chinese buyers said they had been led to believe that the further discounts would not be coming. Many were also looking to take advantage of a nationwide EV subsidy that expired at the year end.
Comments on Chinese social media platforms were largely negative towards the buyers who have protested, with many saying they should have understood the terms of the contract.
“I feel ashamed for them protesting after Tesla cut prices,” a popular law blogger named “Wind Blows” commented on his Weibo account.
After shipping a record of more than 100,000 China-made EVs in November, Tesla saw its deliveries drop sharply in December to below 56,000 amid lacklustre demand and as local production was temporarily suspended for equipment upgrades.
Tesla shares fell more than 8 per cent last week, following a 65 per cent dive in 2022. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
