Undated image of Tesla Model S. Tesla announced price cuts on some models late Thursday, which sent stock prices tumbling in pre-market trading. File Photo by Hadrian/Shutterstock
Jan. 13 (UPI) — Tesla shares dropped during pre-market trading Friday morning, after the company announced price cuts for its Model 3 Performance and Model Y Long Range in the United States, sparking fears that the electric vehicle automaker has not reached the bottom of its recent slump.
According to an update on Tesla’s website, the Model 3’s base version price fell $3,000 to $43,990 while the Performance model’s price was slashed by $9,000 to $53,990. The Model Y Long Range price fell $13,000 to $53,990 and its Performance model slipped $13,000 to $56,990.
That led to a Tesla stock pre-market fall of more than 6% at one point before the opening bell.
“We are constructive on Tesla’s strong global premium EV position and particularly the company’s improved execution in recent years,” Citi analyst Itay Michaeli said in a note.
“However, we are more skeptical on the company’s full-self driving/autonomous vehicle (AV) approach, which we view as a critical input to the overall risk/reward assessment given our positive stance on the AV opportunity as a whole.”
Tesla has also cut prices on its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in Austria, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.
Independent EV industry researcher TroyTeslike said such drops will affect Tesla’s first-quarter estimates.
Earlier this month, Tesla said it produced and delivered more than 1.3 million electric vehicles in 2022, a company record. In the fourth quarter, Tesla produced 439,701 vehicles and delivered 405,278, according to its fourth-quarter report.
The company’s total for 2022 was about 1.37 million produced and 1.31 million delivered.
