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The
carmaker will lower prices of its Model S and Model X cars by
just over 6 percent, a Beijing-based sales representative told
Reuters on Wednesday.
China said on Tuesday it will cut import tariffs for automobiles
to 15 percent from 25 percent, a fillip for premium car brands
like Tesla and BMW which import a significant number of
vehicles.
Tesla said on Tuesday that any of its cars sold in China would
be subject to adjusted prices, even before the tariff change
comes into effect on July 1.
The price of a top-of-the range Model X will be cut to 1.3
million yuan ($203,830) but that remains well above the $140,000
cash price-tag before savings for the priciest version in the
United States - Tesla's Model X P100D.
The move by the California-based electric carmaker likely
foreshadows wider price cuts for imported cars in China as
foreign firms look to narrow a price gap with domestic rivals.
Imports, however, only make up a fraction of the overall market
and tend to be upper-end models.
Yale Zhang, head of Shanghai-based consultancy Automotive
Foresight, said price cuts by foreign premium brands will likely
force them to adjust the price tag for vehicles they produce
locally in China. This in turn will gradually impact the price
of more affordable, mainstream cars - even local Chinese brands.
"With imminent price adjustments in the higher-end segment, that
will over time lead to a pricing adjustment for the entire
market," Zhang said.
Other carmakers, including Japan's Toyota Motor Corp and BMW,
said after the tariff cut that they would look at adjusting
their retail prices in China to provide competitive offers to
consumers.
($1 = 6.3735 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting By Norihiko Shirouzu; Editing by Adam Jourdan)
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