Tesla to Keep More Stores Open, Increase Prices on Some Cars

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) reversed course on its plan to close many of its stores. It also will modestly increase the prices of some of its models. The decisions are another example of how the company and its CEO, Elon Musk, make seemingly random decisions without concrete explanations. The rapid-fire nature of these has bothered investors.

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First:

Over the past two weeks we have been closely evaluating every single Tesla retail location, and we have decided to keep significantly more stores open than previously announced as we continue to evaluate them over the course of several months. When we recently closed 10% of sales locations, we selected stores that didn’t invite the natural foot traffic our stores have always been designed for. These are stores that we would have closed anyway, even if in-store sales made up our entire sales model. A few stores in high visibility locations that were closed due to low throughput will be reopened, but with a smaller Tesla crew. In addition, there are another 20% of locations that are under review, and depending on their effectiveness over the next few months, some will be closed and some will remain open.

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And second:

As a result of keeping significantly more stores open, Tesla will need to raise vehicle prices by about 3% on average worldwide. In other words, we will only close about half as many stores, but the cost savings are therefore only about half.

Potential Tesla owners will have a week to place their order before prices rise, so current prices are valid until March 18th. There will be no price increase to the $35,000 Model 3. The price increases will only apply to the more expensive variants of Model 3, as well as Model S and X.

Tesla customers will still need to order their cars online, part of Musk’s wandering plans to save the company money.

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