(Bloomberg) — Tesla Inc. spent the weekend slashing prices of its models in China, Europe and the United States, amid falling sales and an inventory glut.
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On Saturday evening, the Elon Musk-led company also slashed the price of driver assistance software it calls FSD, or Full Self-Driving, by a third to $8,000 in the United States. It was $12,000.
The promise of a fully autonomous vehicle has long been the key to Tesla’s high valuation. In recent weeks, Tesla has rolled out new versions of FSD software and Musk has committed to unveiling a dedicated robotaxi on August 8.
Tesla’s website says customers will get a 30-day trial of fully autonomous driving capability with the purchase of a new vehicle. The website states that “currently enabled features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.”
Earlier this weekend, Tesla cut prices in China and the United States, its two key markets, as well as in Europe, after disappointing first-quarter sales helped bloat inventories.
In China, Tesla lowered prices across its entire lineup, with the revamped Model 3 dropping to 231,900 yuan ($32,000), down from 245,900 yuan. The Model Y has been reduced to 249,900 yuan – or about $34,500 – from 263,900 yuan.
In the United States, the cheapest version of the Model Y now costs $42,990, bringing the sport utility vehicle’s starting price to its lowest ever. Tesla also slashed the other two more expensive versions of the Model Y by $2,000 and dropped the price of the Model X to its lowest level.
The discounts cap a wild week for the Austin-based automaker. It all started when Musk announced in a memo to the company’s more than 140,000 employees that he was reducing its workforce by more than 10% globally. Two senior executives also left.
Read more: Top Tesla executives leave amid global job cuts
On Wednesday, Tesla said in its proxy statement that it would ask shareholders to vote again on a $56 billion compensation package for Musk that was overturned by a Delaware court in January.
And on Friday, the company recalled nearly 3,900 Cybertruck pickup trucks to repair or replace gas pedals that can become dislodged and cause the vehicle to accelerate unintentionally, increasing the risk of a crash.
Musk also postponed a planned trip to India, where he was due to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he faced “heavy obligations” at Tesla.
Read more: Musk postpones India visit, citing Tesla’s onerous obligations
Tesla will report its first quarter results on April 23. Its stock is down more than 40% this year on concerns about falling sales, intensifying competition in China and Elon Musk’s risky plan to go “to the wall” in matter of autonomy.
The automaker reported its first year-over-year sales decline since the early days of the pandemic, delivering 386,810 vehicles in the first quarter, well below analysts’ estimates.
In China, Tesla’s market share fell to about 6.7% in the fourth quarter of 2023, from 10.5% in the first three months of the year, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from the China Passenger Car Association.
The automaker recently reduced its production schedules at its Shanghai factory, Bloomberg reported late last month. Shipments from its Shanghai factory – which makes electric vehicles for China and for export to other parts of Asia, Europe and Canada – fell in the first two months compared with the he previous year, even as overall passenger vehicle sales in China increased.
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