Tesla warns of Model Y price increase as new end-of-quarter incentive

Tesla has announced that it will increase Model Y prices by $1,000 on April 1st, as a new end-of-quarter incentive.

Tesla has been knowing to use “end-of-quarter incentives” to try to deliver as many vehicles as possible off of its inventory before the quarter ends.

The automaker is incentivized to do so due to its direct-to-consumer approach, which differs from the franchise dealer model employed by most other automakers. With this model, Tesla owns all its vehicles from the moment it produces them to the moment customers take delivery.

It means that its financials look bad with every extra vehicle in inventory even if some or most are already sold to customers.

In the pat, Tesla has employed various incentives and direct discounts at the end of quarters, but this quarter, the automaker also used temporary discounts on Model Y.

Now, it sort of does the inverse by signaling that it will increase the price of all Model Y trims at the end of the month. Tesla wrote on its website:

Prices will increase by $1,000 for all Model Y trims on April 1.

This should incentivize people to go ahead with their orders sooner – helping Tesla secure more orders to deliver its cars by the end of Q1.

That’s on top of other previously reported, including up to 10,000 free Supercharging miles.

When buying with a referral code, Tesla also offers 3 months of free Full Self-Driving package.

Electrek’s Take

It does feel like Tesla is trying virtually every trick in the book and seeing what works best. It makes sense. You then go back to what works.

Discounts at the end of a quarter. Discounts during the quarter. Add-on incentives. And now, a warning that price will go up at the beginning of the next quarter.

However, the main issue I see is that it is now such a common occurrence that you know you are better off buying a Tesla at the end of a quarter.