Tesla Model 3 dealer offers group purchase discount in China, Tesla denies participation


A group of Chinese car dealers is offering a group to buy discounted Tesla Model 3 vehicles, but Tesla has denied any involvement, including offering a lower price.

Some automakers or dealerships will offer group purchase discounts for high volumes, but Tesla is not one of them.

The California-based automaker prides itself on offering the same prices to everyone, although the automaker has deviated from this policy once or twice in the past.

That’s why he raised some eyebrows when Yiauto, a group of Chinese car dealers, announced a group purchase of discounted Tesla Model 3 vehicles on the online platform Pinduoduo.

The company claimed that they could sell Model 3 vehicles made in China by Tesla for 251,800 yuan ($ 36,017), which is 19,750 yuan below the price listed on Tesla’s official website in China:

Tesla shorts are already spreading theories that the automaker sold vehicle fleets to resellers in China to improve its delivery results in the last quarter.

However, Tesla China has denied any participation in this agreement (via China’s Shine):

“This promotional activity has not yet started and is scheduled for July 26. In response, the US electric car maker said that there is no cooperation between Tesla and Pinduoduo or Yiauto in this activity, adding that Tesla it does not have any form of sales service ordered from Pinduoduo or Yiauto. Tesla said it did not sell any vehicles to Pinduoduo or Yiauto for this promotion. “

The group can only test interest in a group purchase without consulting Tesla if possible.

We previously reported on a purchase by the Nissan Leaf group that failed after the Japanese automaker got involved.

In the second quarter of 2020, Tesla delivered around 30,000 vehicles in China. It means that the country accounted for about a third of Tesla’s global deliveries during the second quarter.

The taking of Electrek

This is a stranger.

As is usually the case, the shorts are wrong on this one. The most likely explanation is that this is being done completely independently of Tesla.

In Quebec, Tesla resellers were not really uncommon until recently when Tesla changed its policy on that front. People would buy Tesla vehicles from resellers for a higher price than directly from Tesla because the resellers would offer better prices on the swaps, offsetting the higher price.

Since the deal would also include exchanges, it would also result in lower taxes.

This agreement could offer similar benefits and the dealer could offer other services to offset the discount. Of course, I’m speculating, but I think there are many better explanations than Tesla trying to download cars through a dealer to increase their Q2 numbers.

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