Tesla’s Base Model Y Is Now $759 Cheaper Than The Average New Vehicle In The US

Tesla’s latest round of price cuts on its Model Y – putting the base model of the crossover vehicle at $46,990 – has made the vehicle cheaper than the average new vehicle in the U.S.

In fact, it’s now about $759 cheaper than the average price tag on any given car or truck, according to Bloomberg. The Model Y was the best selling EV in the U.S. last year, the report notes, stating about Tesla’s price cuts:

“No carmaker has made such a dramatic a reduction to a high-volume vehicle in the modern age of the automobile.”

Tesla is continuing what seems to be a completely schizophrenic pricing strategy, with reports out late last week that the automaker had raised the price of its Model X and Model S vehicles just hours after missing margin estimates on its earnings report. 

The Model S Plaid and Model X Plaid now cost $107,490 from $104,990 earlier, Reuters reported last week. They also said the regular Model X is at $97,940, which marks about a 2.6% rise, and the Model S is at $87,490, marking a rise of about 2.9%. 

Recall, the EV maker plunged last week after reporting earnings that disappointed Wall Street. Among the topics of discussions were the company’s poor margins, occurring as a result of Tesla slashing prices consistently since the beginning of 2023. Total GAAP margin for the quarter was 19.3%, missing estimates of 21.2% and down 977 bps from 29.1% just one year ago. 

Tesla closed its first quarter with record deliveries hitting over 423,000 units worldwide, but that’s still less than what the automaker produced. Tesla has used price cuts throughout the quarter, aiming to reach more of the mass market, and as Bloomberg calculated last week, the latest price cut makes the Tesla Model Y nearly a third cheaper than it was at the start of the year, in part due to the introduction of a new lowest level trim.

The most recent cuts to Model X and Model S prices came on March 6, a little more than a month ago, when the company reduced the starting prices for the S and X in the US by 5.3% and 9.1%, respectively, to $89,990 and $99,990. Additionally, the higher-performance Plaid version of the Model S and X had been lowered by 4.3% and 8.3%.

Just hours before it reported earnings, the company made its sixth price cuts of the year. Model Y prices were cut by $3,000 and the base Model 3 was cut by 4.7% to less than $40,000 at the time. It was literally only days prior that we wrote about a fifth set of price cuts Tesla had put into place this year.