MASSIVE $21,000 Tesla Price Cut Is Here | Fans Are Furious

today we’re getting into the latest Tesla news including a new Tesla steering wheel Tesla passing BMW in the U.S and massive Tesla price drops across their entire lineup in all markets so let’s get into it [Music] first up today since the refresh of the model snx announced back in January of 2021 Tesla has only offered those cars with a yoke steering wheel option this wheel drew a lot of criticism but overall has worked out fine for owners at the same time though people have wanted the option to purchase a round steering wheel when buying these cars particularly on the model X but Elon Musk was clear that Tesla wouldn’t make this in July of 2021 he responded no in response to whether Tesla would make an optional round wheel in September of 2021 he said yet another round wheel is boring and blocks the screen FSD and panoramic mode looks way better with a yoke it took a long time for Tesla to scale up those vehicles and renders of a round wheel on those cars leaked a while ago but Tesla never released it until now I figured this change would happen eventually and Tesla has made this change in two ways first when you configure a Model S or X on Tesla’s website you can now configure a steering control option surprisingly the default is now a round wheel still with touch sensitive buttons but a normal wheel shape then you can change to a yoke if you choose and either option is included I personally recommend the Yoke and would say to give it a try before deciding not to buy it but I’m also glad to see Tesla finally making this an option in classic Tesla fashion though this change was made suddenly and has made some customers frustrated that their car had no option for a round wheel to handle this Tesla is offering a retrofit allowing you to change from a yoke to a round wheel if you so choose but it costs 700 Tesla offers it on their online shop saying quote travel in luxury enjoy the warmth of a heated wheel and the touch of Premium vegan leather in a traditional form factor no stocks or shifters it will become available in March and the purchase price includes Tesla Service installation next up to date Tesla has officially become the top Luxury Auto brand in the United States based on registration data collected and posted by Automotive news Tesla has entered the number one spot this is the first time in 25 years that a US automaker has been in this position they are in first with 491 thousand registrations in the US for 2022 passing BMW at 300 132 388 and Mercedes at two hundred and eighty six thousand seven hundred sixty four Lexus Audi Cadillac Acura and Volvo follow after in 2021 BMW was in the top spot beating Tesla by around 23 000 units so Tesla’s significant Factory ramping this year has definitely helped them comfortably enter this top spot leading by over a hundred thousand Vehicles their lead here is only expected to grow in 2023 but recent price drops have both concerned people as to Tesla’s demand and encouraged people that Tesla is able to lower prices once again at the end of last quarter Tesla was offering discounts of 37.50 and up to 7 500 by the end of the year this was largely seen as Tesla trying to clear inventory while customers were delaying orders to see what the impending tax credit would offer the details for that tax credit came out disqualifying the model y since it was over the 55 000 price cap it was assigned but then we started seeing Tesla lower prices in China Tesla suddenly slashed their prices at the beginning of January lowering prices up to the equivalent of seven thousand dollars this brought cheapest vehicle in China the model 3 rear-wheel drive down 13.54 percent to 229 900 RMB or 33 417 US Dollars the model y long range also dropped down 13.41 to the equivalent of 45 118 dollars in China this was exciting to hear from the perspective of affordable electric vehicles but sparked protests for the customers who had just purchased cars at the higher prices shortly after we saw Tesla continue to slash prices in markets like South Korea Japan Singapore and Australia but this week they officially dropped prices for the first time in a long time in the United States it’s the biggest price drop we’ve seen and far larger than anyone expected the model 3 rear wheel drive dropped three thousand dollars the model 3 long range dropped eight thousand dollars in model 3 Performance dropped to nine thousand dollars those are significant price drops and far more than I expected to happen at once but the bigger drop is for the model y Tesla lowered the price of the model y from sixty five thousand nine hundred ninety dollars all the way to down to fifty two thousand nine hundred ninety dollars that is a thirteen thousand dollar price drop overnight lowering its full price by twenty percent model wide performance dropped the same amount bringing that car down to fifty six thousand nine hundred ninety dollars what this means is that a base model y even price capped at fifty five thousand dollars for a tax credit is now eligible for certain customers the model y has now become a whole twenty thousand dollars cheaper it used to be sixty five thousand nine hundred ninety dollars and not get a tax credit but now it’s fifty two thousand nine hundred ninety dollars and eligible for a seventy five hundred dollar credit bringing the price down to forty five thousand four hundred ninety dollars for some people when including that credit that’s the cheapest price the model y has ever been available for and it’s a significant change from the very high price this car has been at Tesla also dropped Model S and X prices at the same time dropping the model S plaid to the lowest price I believe we’ve seen the model S dropped ten thousand dollars now starting at ninety four thousand nine hundred ninety dollars a ten percent drop the model S plaid dropped a whole twenty one thousand dollars now starting at hundred and fourteen thousand nine hundred ninety dollars a fifteen percent drop the model X dropped eleven thousand dollars now starting at a hundred and nine thousand nine hundred ninety dollars a nine percent drop and lastly the model X plaid dropped nineteen thousand dollars now starting at One hundred nineteen thousand nine hundred ninety dollars a fourteen percent drop there’s a lot to talk about here but the first concern people have is that Tesla has demand issues and desperately needs to drop their prices in order to sell vehicles what’s very likely though is a mix of a few things Tesla has been able to bring down production costs and is passing those savings down to the purchase price at the same time a lower purchase price will surely lead to more sales of the model Y and three that have been priced very high for some time I think the Tesla does have a quote demand issue that they’re addressing with this price drop but it has all been part of their plan they knew they couldn’t keep selling a growing number of available model wise each quarter at sixty six thousand dollars keep selling their cars at premiums people are paying and lower them once it becomes necessary to do so a recent development as well was that most trims were not going to qualify for the tax credit either now that should be another incentive for people to purchase this massive price drop is fantastic news for future Tesla buyers and for EVS in general it shows that these vehicles are able to be priced lower and it should lead to many more customers being able to buy Teslas at the same time Tesla is ramping up production at multiple new factories long term this is a great thing cheaper EVS are what we want and the ultimate goal it’s far easier to recommend a model Y at fifty three thousand dollars as compared to sixty six thousand dollars and many more people will be able to justify this purchase what I don’t understand though is why Tesla did this overnight it’s a Surefire way to make brand new and fairly recent Tesla customers angry they did this first in China and now have followed suit in the U.

S Europe and Canada they slash prices up to 21 with certain models in Canada and it’s similar in Europe overall it’s clear that they can and need to price their vehicles lower in order for demand to stay in line with their increasing production capacity again though I don’t really see why they couldn’t have eased prices down in the way that they eased them up in the past couple years they want these car hours to qualify for the tax incentive but people were buying their cars regardless of tax incentives in the past it seems they really suddenly can lower prices but also need to as a result I don’t think the timing here was handled well at all it’s how Tesla operates where anything can change at any moment ultimately it’s great that their cars are far more affordable but I know plenty of people who bought a Tesla very recently and now see the same vehicle selling for a significant discount from what they paid even those who bought win Tesla was offering a large credit at the end of 2022 are finding that waiting two weeks would have saved them around five thousand dollars Tesla offered a great credit of 7 500 off to clear Q4 inventory waited less than two weeks and dropped the price far more than that credit did others may find that their purchase could have been up to twenty thousand dollars cheaper if they had waited a single month it would be one thing if Tesla did this over the course of many months and customers could look back six months later and see a thirteen thousand dollar or twenty thousand dollar price drop frustrating but a long enough period of time to understand how things change it’s another thing to experience that draw up just a couple weeks after dropping sixty six thousand dollars on a Model white purchase not only could it feel like a slap in the face but it will immediately devalue your car that you just bought I’m sure that there’s a way that they could have eased pricing down over time kept customers happy and actually made more profit in the process dropping this much all at once is very odd to me as good as it is for the bigger picture speaking to why test the dropped prices though I test the spokesperson in Germany said quote at the end of a turbulent year with interruptions to the supply chain we have achieved a partial normalization of cost inflation which gives us the confidence to pass this relief onto our customers as frustrating as this is for recent buyers the impact that this will have for Tesla is going to be huge many more customers will be able to buy an EV and Tesla is finally able to truly undercut the competition they continue to have competition be on range supercharging and certain features in their vehicles but those advantages used to come at a significant premium now they come at a cost lower than or on par with many competing Vehicles there will always be customers who want to buy an EV that isn’t a Tesla but for those deciding between a Tesla or another EV it will be much more difficult to not get a Tesla a Tesla Model y now is significantly cheaper than a range equivalent Mustang Mach e or Cadillac lyric and qualifies for 7 500 off that those Vehicles don’t the model Y is also Priced Right in line with vehicles like the ev6 or ionic 5.

And on the back end we know that Tesla’s profit margins are higher helping them significantly long term their production capacity is continuing to grow and they now offer some of the best EV options at some of the best price points available from any company there’s definitely valid frustration with this sudden price drop but it will be huge for Tesla’s growth in 2023. this is all happening right as Tesla is preparing to introduce the standard range 4680 model y in the US they are making them again and selling them through inventory currently and all signs point to them getting ready to add this configuration to the online configurator they appear priced the same as a Long Range model Y at the moment but these are coming out of Giga Texas and will likely come in even cheaper in the future this could potentially bring a model y option under fifty thousand dollars at the same time Tesla dropped these prices they did make three small changes to the pricing structure when configuring a vehicle the destination fee has gone up 190 dollars now coming in at one thousand three hundred ninety dollars the price of the seven seater option in the model y has increased one thousand dollars now coming in as a four thousand dollar option and they brought back the charge for changing from white to midnight silver metallic paint for a while either of those colors were included now it’s an extra one thousand dollars for midnight silver metallic and white is the only included color in the base price we’ll see how all this pans out but Tesla is going to have a lot of recent frustrated customers and also likely see an influx of new orders for their cars at these new lower prices next up today Tesla has once again begun reporting their autopilot safety data for a while they weren’t posting updated autopilot safety data as they used to do each quarter but now they have filled it in and published the latest data through Q3 of 2022.

They chart out the improvements which are very notable as always with Tesla autopilot data it’s important to remember that they are comparing autopilot which is mostly used on freeways and clearly marked roads to General driving but it’s still impressive to see the lines are miles driven per one accident with a dark blue line being Tesla vehicle using autopilot technology the light blue line being test the vehicle not using autopilot technology and the Gray Line being the US average it looks like the best quarter they had ever was q1 of 2022 and Q3 of 2022 was the next safest quote in the third quarter we recorded one crash for every 6.26 million miles driven in which drivers were using autopilot technology for drivers who were not using autopilot technology we recorded one crash for every 1.

71 million miles driven by comparison the most recent data available from Nitsa and fhwa from 2021 shows that in the United States there was an automobile crash approximately every 652 000 miles autopilot continues to prove its safety and this is particularly showing the effectiveness of Tesla Vision Without radar long term Tesla’s goal is for FSD in general to be better than human drivers but it’s a long road to get there in the meantime it’s great to see Tesla reporting this data again so we can see that autopilot has continued improving as their Fleet is growing next up today Tesla is expanding in a few different ways in Texas this week Tesla filed for a 717 million dollar expansion of Giga Texas with the Texas department of licensing and regulation it includes an additional 1.4 million square feet of space comprising four different projects the largest is a 693 000 square foot facility called cell one with construction set to complete on February 12 2024.

Drive Unit is the second largest and that will be 423 000 square feet completing construction on January 15 2024. the third project is cathode at 321 000 square feet and the fourth is cell test lab only about 2560 square feet this is a huge Expansion Project and pretty clearly relates to a few main pieces of manufacturing Tesla will be doing and expanding at Giga Texas likely these will relate to the Cyber truck but they could also be for any future Tesla products built to kick at Texas at the same time Tesla has secured a new 1 million square foot building near Brookshire Texas it’s unknown what this space will be used for but the rumor is that it will be for battery storage quote little is known about Tesla’s plans but the Fortune 500 company signed a lease late last year for about 1.03 million square feet at 111 Empire West part of the 300 acre Empire West Business Park in Brookshire Tesla is continuing to expand rapidly in many ways and a big piece of this is with their overall footprint in the state of Texas another place they’re expanding is with the refining of lithium itself for their batteries we’ve known Tesla was in the process of entering this space for some time with Tesla planning to invest 365 million dollars into a lithium plant that will employ 165 people now Tesla is moving forward with hiring a new job listing for project scheduler has popped up and the listing says quote as a project scheduler you will be playing a critical role in the construction of Tesla’s first lithium refinery plant near Corpus Christi Texas this role will support all project phases from engineering through commissioning of construction by providing project management with critical decision-making information that ensures projects are delivered on time the timeline here isn’t clear but Tesla is starting the process long term this could be another piece that leads to significant cost advantages for Tesla last up today some updates about other automakers Lucid Motors finished 2022 strong surpassing their guidance of 7000 units within 2022.

They produce 7180 Lucid errors in 2022 and delivered 4 369 of them that’s a 50 production growth and they achieved it with strong Q4 growth where they produced 3493 EVS however it’s important to note that these were their revised targets changed from their originally announced goal of 20 000. we’ll see how 2023 pans out but hopefully they can get on track for more production and deliveries within the year over at Jaguar they just unveiled their new 2024 i-pace it has a bit of a facelift and a number of new features but one thing to note is that the range from the 90 kilowatt hour battery is 292 miles wltp converted to EPA that’s a range of about 263 miles Jaguar says quote ipace has always offered a comprehensive package of performance agility technology and everyday usability that customers expect from a Jaguar together with the smooth quiet and effortless Driving Experience that electrification offers we’ve delivered exactly that and now it’s the latest model to benefit from our approach of offering more curated richer specifications over at Mercedes they announced that they plan to drop the EQ branding from their EVS by 2024.

They are doing this to avoid confusion since they soon will have a large variety of electric offerings these will be the eqa eqb eqc eqe eq-e-s-u-v eq-s eqs SUV eqv and maybe the eqg and eqt that’s a lot of similar vehicle names and customers often think these are designated this way due to size instead of the fact that they are electric we’ll see what they come up with for their branding but I think it’s a smart move as they plan to go all-electric after 2025. that’s all the latest Tesla news for today so in the meantime if you want to see the latest announced EVS coming soon you can check out that video linked up here or in the description below thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you on the next one