Tesla is turning back to free Supercharging and offering big discounts in Europe to boost sales in its toughest market for a record quarter.
There’s no hiding it. Tesla is not doing well in Europe this year.
According to EU-EVs, the automaker has delivered about 85,000 fewer vehicles in Europe so far this year:
In Q4, Tesla aims to deliver a record number of at least 515,000 vehicles. It will have to reverse that trend to make it happen.
The company is now putting some strong incentives in place to try to make it happen.
Tesla is offering a year of free Supercharging for people taking delivery of a new vehicle by the end of the quarter in Europe.
That can be worth a few hundred dollars to a few thousand depending on how often you use Supercharging, as most people do the vast majority of their charging at home overnight.
But Tesla is now also doing direct discounts on its inventory in Europe early in the quarter.
In Germany, where Tesla has had a particularly difficult year, the automaker is now offering 6,000 € direct discounts on new Model Y vehicles:
This is one of the deepest discounts on new inventory vehicles we have ever seen Tesla give to buyers.
Tesla’s sales were down 42% in Germany during the first half of the year.
The company is hoping to reserve that trend in Q4 with those discounts.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla’s EV competition in Europe is more challenging than in North America, and it shows. The competition is also serious in China, but Tesla has managed to create some premium distance between itself and some of the cheaper Chinese competitors.
In Europe, Tesla has strong competition in the premium segments, especially from local manufacturers like Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, which puts pressure on Tesla from the top rather than the bottom, like in China.
It looks like Europe could be the difference maker for Tesla in Q4 as it is where it has the most ground to cover.