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Tesla Owners In Asia Protest Against New Massive Price Cuts

Tesla owners have staged protests outside Tesla stores and Superchargers in some parts of Asia after the electric vehicle (EV) maker announced last week massive price cuts, which means that existing customers for some models in some counties have paid by up to 40 percent more for buying their Teslas before the price reduction.

In Taiwan, for example, a Model S P100D now costs about half the price than it used to just a week ago, Electrek reports.

The price cuts that Tesla announced last week alongside the availability of the US$35,000 Tesla Model 3 will be welcome news for new buyers, but existing customers in Taiwan and in China feel that those massive price reductions have been unfair to previous customers.

"I received Tesla's Model X on February 25, and I only drove this car for five days before Tesla announced a price reduction of 174,300 yuan ($25,989.87). I'm probably the most unlucky new buyer ... That's unfair," China's Global Times quoted a user on Chinese social media as saying.

According to analysts who spoke to Global Times, Tesla's frequent price changes in China would affect its sales on the world's biggest EV market because customers could wait for more price reductions and hope for a locally produced Model 3 to roll out.

Last week, Tesla said that the long-awaited US$35,000 Model 3 was now available, but in order to "remain financially sustainable", Tesla is shifting sales worldwide on online sales only, meaning it would be closing down stores.

"Shifting all sales online, combined with other ongoing cost efficiencies, will enable us to lower all vehicle prices by about 6% on average, allowing us to achieve the $35,000 Model 3 price point earlier than we expected," Tesla said last week.

"Base Model 3 available in Europe in ~6 months, Asia 6 to 8 months. Latter contingent on Shanghai Gigafactory. Country-specific taxes & import duties mean price may be 25% or more above US number," Elon Musk said last week.   

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Tsvetana Paraskova

Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews.  More

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