In news that the market no longer seems to be optimistic about, Tesla is once again cutting prices in the United States - and this time it's right ahead of today's forthcoming earnings report.
The company cut prices on the Model 3 and Model Y and, as Bloomberg wrote, is likely tipping its hand that it is in the midst of a demand problem. Model Y prices were cut by $3,000 and the base Model 3 was cut by 4.7% to less than $40,000, the report said.
Predictably, it's not the sign of confidence the stock was looking for, and Tesla is trading down nearly 3% ahead of today's report.
The company's price cuts were seen as an effective lever for the company earlier this year, with Wall Street celebrating the success Tesla had in continuing to stoke demand with what looked like strategic, one-time cuts.
But as we make our way through the first month of the second quarter, Tesla has already made its second cut to prices this month alone.
Recall, we noted late last week that the company had also slashed the price of its vehicles in Europe, Israel and Singapore. Tesla said it "cut prices in numerous European markets including Germany and France because of a scaling up and improvement in its production capacity."
Prices in Germany for the Model 3 and Model Y were cut between 4.5% and 9.8%, marking the second price cut for the country this year, the report says. Singapore saw price cuts of between 4.3% and 5% and Israel saw price cuts of an astounding 25% for the base rear-wheel drive Model 3.
It was literally only days ago that we wrote about a fifth set of price cuts Tesla had put into place this year. Last week, the company cut the Model S and Model X vehicles by $5,000 to $84,990 and $94,990 and cut its Model 3 and Model Y vehicle by $1,000 and $2,000, lowering their base prices to $41,990 and $49,990.
“We’re not ‘starting a price war. We’re just lowering prices to enable affordability at scale,” Elon Musk commented on Twitter late last week.
We'll get more details on how the price cuts have affected the company's financials when it reports earnings after the bell today.