About a week ago, it was reported that Tesla had decided to move to an online-only sales model, and would close a number of its stores around the country, using just a few of them as showrooms.
The goal of the move, the stories said, was to cut costs, which would allow the company to hold the line on the price of its new Model 3 electric sedan at $35,000.
Then, it was reported that Tesla actually had as much as $1.6 billion in lease obligations, and mall landlords seemed to have little inclination to let Tesla off the hook.
Now, the New York Times reports that Tesla has “decided to retain many of the locations it had shut down or was planning to close. And it said it would raise most of its vehicle prices about 3 percent worldwide, just weeks after cutting prices.”
The Times notes that this is yet more evidence of how mercurial Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, can be. “Tesla has been in retreat in recent months, scrambling to shore up flagging investor confidence,” the Times writes. “Along with layoffs of 7 percent of its work force in January, the news of store closings appeared to underline the challenges for a newcomer breaking into an old-line manufacturing industry. The company has struggled to make a few thousand cars in a week — a feat that established automakers can do in a day.”
The goal of the move, the stories said, was to cut costs, which would allow the company to hold the line on the price of its new Model 3 electric sedan at $35,000.
Then, it was reported that Tesla actually had as much as $1.6 billion in lease obligations, and mall landlords seemed to have little inclination to let Tesla off the hook.
Now, the New York Times reports that Tesla has “decided to retain many of the locations it had shut down or was planning to close. And it said it would raise most of its vehicle prices about 3 percent worldwide, just weeks after cutting prices.”
The Times notes that this is yet more evidence of how mercurial Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, can be. “Tesla has been in retreat in recent months, scrambling to shore up flagging investor confidence,” the Times writes. “Along with layoffs of 7 percent of its work force in January, the news of store closings appeared to underline the challenges for a newcomer breaking into an old-line manufacturing industry. The company has struggled to make a few thousand cars in a week — a feat that established automakers can do in a day.”
- KC's View:
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Kind of reminds me of a Jimmy Buffett lyric … Indecision may or may not be my problem.
