Faced with uncertain demand for electric vehicles, Tesla has significantly lowered the price of Model Y across Europe. A week ago, the car company also implemented price cuts in China. Data from Tesla’s official website shows that it has cut prices in markets such as Germany and France. In Germany, Tesla has lowered the prices of its Model Y long-range version and Model Y high-performance version by 5,000 euros respectively to 49,990 euros and 55,990 euros, which are 9% and 8.1% cheaper than the previous prices respectively. The price of the Model Y rear-wheel drive model has also been reduced by 4.2%.

In France, Tesla lowered the price of Model Y by 6.7%; in Denmark, the price dropped by as much as 10.8%. In the Netherlands, Tesla lowered the price of Model Y by 7.7%; in Norway, it lowered the price by 5.6% to 7.1%.

Electric vehicle demand slows

While Tesla did not give a reason for the price cuts, demand for electric vehicles has been slowing overall as declining state subsidies and high borrowing costs prompt buyers to reconsider big-ticket purchases.

According to data from the German Federal Motor Vehicle Administration (KBA), a total of 524,219 new electric vehicles will be on the road in Germany in 2023, an increase of 11.4% from 2022, and sales growth has slowed down. Tesla's new car registrations in Germany fell by 9% to 63,685 vehicles, and its market share fell to 12.1%

This caused Tesla to lose its crown as Germany's largest electric car seller, replacing it with Volkswagen, which held 13.5% of the market share.

Competition in the electric vehicle market has heated up over the past year, with Tesla facing challenges from numerous other automakers. In 2023, Chinese automaker BYD will overtake Tesla as the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer.

Tesla stock gets off to a bad start in 2024

Those price cuts, along with UBS Group AG and Wells Fargo Bank each lowering their target prices, sent Tesla shares down about 2% on Wednesday. This worsens the stock's poor start to 2024. Tesla shares have fallen more than 13% since the beginning of the year.


On Wednesday, Wells Fargo and UBS cut their target prices on Tesla shares by more than 8% and nearly 11%, respectively.

Tesla said on Thursday it would suspend most car production at its factory near Berlin from January 29 to February 11, citing parts shortages caused by changes in shipping routes caused by attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

Germany's electric vehicle subsidy program was originally scheduled to last until the end of 2024, but it ended early last month, which was a blow to Tesla.