Tesla Raises Prices in Bold Move

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Tesla Raises Prices in Bold Move

© Tesla Motors Model S-1 (BY 2.0) by jurvetson

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) has raised the price of its top-of-the-line Model S by $5,000 in the United States. It is a bold move in an electric vehicle (EV) market that has been choppy this year. It also indicates that the company wants to improve its already solid margins. Tesla has had 49% of the U.S. EV market this year.

24/7 Wall St. Key Points:

According to Reuters, which examined prices at Tesla’s website, “The Model S base variant All-Wheel Drive (AWD) will now cost $79,990, while the performance ‘Plaid’ variant will cost $94,990, according to the website.” The jump comes during a period when investors hope that Tesla will introduce a $25,000 EV to draw buyers to a model priced well below the overall market. Cox Automotive reports that the average EV price in September was $56,328, while the average price of a new gasoline-powered car was $74,490.

The Tesla Model S sedan’s sales are well behind the Model Y SUV and slightly behind the Model 3 sedan. It is among the expensive EV sedans, including the EV models from Mercedes, BMW, and Lucid.

Tesla’s EV sales have slowed this year and are expected to be down or flat compared to 2023. In the third quarter of 2024, it delivered 462,890 units.

Tesla’s margin could use a lift. The company’s automotive revenue in the third quarter was $20 billion, up 2% from the same quarter a year ago. Operating income rose 54% to $2.7 billion. However, like other EV companies, it has cut prices on many models to hold revenue when the American public favored gas-powered cars.

Like other EV companies, Tesla has had to contend with consumer concerns about high prices, range, number of chargers, and charging time. With the Model S, it clearly thinks it can overcome those concerns.

Tesla Is on Track to Become a $3 Trillion Company Says One Analyst

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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