Tesla cuts prices in the U.S. and Europe to stoke sales after lackluster year-end deliveries
Electric vehicle maker Tesla is cutting prices in the United States and throughout Europe again, according to listings on the company’s website on Thursday night in the U.S.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on what motivated it to slash prices this week.
However, the move in the U.S. may help Tesla qualify for more federal EV tax credits, and stoke sales volume here and abroad, after competition and interest rates increased.
In Europe, Tesla cut prices on its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the U.K.
The Tesla Model Y (left) and Model 3 electric cars at the company’s official launch event in Bangkok on Dec. 7, 2022. The Model 3 is the company’s entry-level sedan. The Model Y is categorized by some as an SUV and others as a crossover.
Lillian Suwanrumpha | Afp | Getty Images
Reuters reported that in Germany, Tesla cut prices on the Model 3 and the Model Y from 1% to around 17%, depending on the configuration. Tesla’s Model 3 was the bestselling electric vehicle in Germany in December 2022, followed by the Model Y. The company beat out Volkswagen and its popular electric vehicle the ID.4 in Germany.
Tesla’s Model 3 at its discounted price is comparable to Volkswagen’s entry level electric car, the ID.3.
According to the independent EV industry researcher, TroyTeslike, the price of a new Tesla Model 3 in the U.S. has dropped between 6% and 14%, depending on configuration, and the cost of the Model Y dropped about 19%, also depending on configuration.
The Model 3 is Tesla’s entry-level sedan. The Model Y is categorized by some as a sport utility vehicle and others as a crossover. The company also lowered prices of its more expensive, Model S sedan and falcon-wing SUV Model X vehicles in the U.S.
Generally, EVs qualify for tax credits in the U.S., depending on what form factor or category they fall into, their efficiency and range (meaning the number of miles they can travel on a fully charged battery) as well as the manufacturers’ suggested retail price.
The U.S. government has delayed setting new rules about sourcing of raw materials and battery components to qualify automakers for a $7,500 clean vehicle tax credit until at least the end of March 2023.
This means that Tesla — and other EV makers — can buy parts and critical minerals from suppliers around the world for now, and still qualify for some EV subsidies. Those seeking to qualify for federal subsidies do need to complete final vehicle assembly of their electric cars in North America under current, interim rules.
The latest round of discounts by Tesla may set the company up to reap the benefits of EV tax credits in both the near and longer term. But it also risks upsetting customers who just agreed to take delivery of new electric cars from Tesla before the end of 2022 at higher prices.
Earlier this month, Tesla angered customers in China by slashing prices on its Model 3 and Model Y cars there after many had agreed to take delivery at higher prices before Dec. 31. Some of the customers staged protests and demanded rebates, but so far, Tesla has not relented, according to a Reuters report.
In late December, Tesla discounted its Model 3 and Model Y cars by about $7,500 to entice customers to take deliveries before the end of the fourth quarter. Tesla also offered some U.S. customers 10,000 miles’ worth of free charging (at Tesla Supercharging stations) if they agreed to take delivery before the year’s end.
Despite the discounts, in the fourth quarter of 2022, Tesla reported deliveries of 405,278 vehicles and production of 439,701 vehicles. The company had been telling shareholders to expect 50% in annual vehicle delivery growth over a multiyear horizon but fell shy of that annual goal and analysts’ expectations in the fourth quarter.
Tesla now operates its first U.S. vehicle assembly plant in Fremont, California, a newer one in Austin, Texas, its first overseas factory in Shanghai, and a newer one in Gruenheide, Germany.
The company’s production capacity should be much higher in 2023 than in previous years with those factories, but bearish analysts have voiced concerns over a possible “demand cliff.”
Tesla is now facing more competition, higher interest rates and slower consumer spending than in recent years, Bernstein analysts wrote in a note on Jan. 12.
They said, “We believe that many investors underestimate the magnitude of the demand challenges Tesla is facing.” However, the firm has had an “underperform” rating and price target of $150 on shares of Tesla after the company’s share price declined in recent months.
CEO Elon Musk sold billions of dollars’ worth of his Tesla shares last year, in part to finance a leveraged buyout of Twitter for around $44 billion. Since he took over Twitter and appointed himself CEO in late October, Musk has been splitting time, and sharing some resources, between the social media business and his electric car company.
Tesla plans to report its 2022 fourth-quarter results on Jan. 25, 2023, and should share its new outlook for the year ahead then.
Technology
Sam Altman says OpenAI will top $20 billion in annualized revenue this year, hundreds of billions by 2030
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks to media following a Q&A at the OpenAI data center in Abilene, Texas, U.S., Sept. 23, 2025.
Shelby Tauber | Reuters
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Thursday that the artificial intelligence startup is on track to generate more than $20 billion in annualized revenue run rate this year, with plans to grow to hundreds of billions in sales by 2030.
The company has inked more than $1.4 trillion of infrastructure deals in recent months to try and build out the data centers it says are needed to meet growing demand. The staggering sum has raised questions from investors and others in the industry about where OpenAI will come up with the money.
“We are trying to build the infrastructure for a future economy powered by AI, and given everything we see on the horizon in our research program, this is the time to invest to be really scaling up our technology,” Altman wrote in a post on X. “Massive infrastructure projects take quite awhile to build, so we have to start now.”
OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit research lab in 2015, but has become one of the fastest-growing commercial entities on the planet following the launch of its chatbot ChatGPT in 2022. The startup is currently valued at $500 billion, though it’s still not profitable.
In September, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC that OpenAI was on track to generate $13 billion in revenue this year.
Friar caught the attention of the Trump administration this week after she saying at at event that OpenAI is looking to create an ecosystem of banks, private equity and a federal “backstop” or “guarantee” that could help the company finance its investments in cutting-edge chips.
She clarified those comments late Wednesday, writing in a post on LinkedIn that OpenAI is not seeking a government backstop for its infrastructure commitments.
“I used the word ‘backstop’ and it muddied the point,” Friar wrote. “As the full clip of my answer shows, I was making the point that American strength in technology will come from building real industrial capacity which requires the private sector and government playing their part.”
Venture capitalist David Sacks, who is serving as President Donald Trump’s AI and crypto czar, said Thursday that there will be “no federal bailout for AI.” He wrote in a post on X that if one frontier model company in the U.S. fails, another will take its place.
Altman said Thursday that OpenAI does “not have or want government guarantees for OpenAI datacenters.” He said taxpayers should not bail out companies that make poor decisions, and that “if we get it wrong, that’s on us.”
“This is the bet we are making, and given our vantage point, we feel good about it,” Altman wrote. “But we of course could be wrong, and the market—not the government—will deal with it if we are.”
WATCH: Trump AI czar David Sacks says ‘no federal bailout for AI’ after OpenAI CFO’s comments
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., during a dinner with tech leaders in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. US President Donald Trump said he would be imposing tariffs on semiconductor imports “very shortly” but spare goods from companies like Apple Inc. that have pledged to boost their US investments. Photographer: Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Will Oliver | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Meta projected that 10% of its overall sales in 2024, or about $16 billion, came from running online ads for scams and banned goods, according to a Thursday report from Reuters.
Those kinds of ads included promotions for “fraudulent e-commerce and investment schemes, illegal online casinos and the sale of banned medical products,” according to the Reuters report, which was based on internal company documents. Those documents showed the company’s attempts to measure the prevalence of fraudulent advertising on its apps like Facebook and Instagram.
Meta brought in more than $164.5 billion in overall sales for 2024. Last week, the company said that third-quarter sales rose 26% year-over-year to $51.24 billion and that it lifted the low end of its total expenses for the year by $2 billion as part of its massive investments into artificial intelligence.
The Reuters report cited a December 2024 document that showed how Meta each year generates roughly $7 billion in annualized sales from so-called “higher risk” scam ads, which are promotions that are clearly deceptive. Each day, Meta shows users an estimated 15 billion of these higher risk scam ads, the Reuters report said, citing a separate document.
Although some of the documents show that Meta aims to reduce the amount of bogus ads on its platform, the Reuters report also said that other documents suggest the company is concerned that its business projections could be impacted by any abrupt removal of the fraudulent promotions.
A Meta spokesperson said that the company “aggressively” addresses scam and fraud ads on its apps. The projections that 10% of the company’s 2024 ad sales came from bunk ads “was a rough and overly-inclusive estimate rather than a definitive or final figure; in fact, subsequent review revealed that many of these ads weren’t violating at all,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, the leaked documents present a selective view that distorts Meta’s approach to fraud and scams by focusing on our efforts to assess the scale of the challenge, not the full range of actions we have taken to address the problem,” the spokesperson said.
WATCH: Wall Street backs AI winners, and Meta’s not one of them this quarter.
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