Tesla (TSLA) brings back FSD transfer, offers $2,000 loyalty discount amid demand crisis

Tesla (TSLA) is reintroducing Full Self-Driving (FSD) transfers and offering $2,000 loyalty discounts on the new Model Y to existing owners amid a demand surge.

Yesterday, we reported that Tesla is starting to have new Model Y inventory in the US, just weeks after launching the updated vehicle.

Now, Tesla has pulled new demand levers to drive sales of these vehicles.

First, last night, Tesla began sending emails to early Model Y owners in the US, offering them a $2,000 discount on upgrading to the new Model Y.

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This is an unusual type of discount for Tesla and a significant one.

On top of the direct loyalty discount, Tesla also announced that it is bringing back “FSD transfer” on all vehicles in the US:

‘Vox populi, Vox Dei’. Tesla says that it’s by popular demand that it is coming back, but that’s true. It’s because Tesla needs it.

If it were by popular demand, FSD transfer would always be available to Tesla owners as long as Tesla hasn’t delivered on its promise of delivering unsupervised full self-driving. That would simply be the right thing to do and what most owners, who are not also Tesla shareholders, have been asking for years.

But instead, Tesla is using its own inability to deliver a product it promised and sold as a way to create more demand for its newer vehicles.

In the summer of 2023, CEO Elon Musk finally agreed to allow FSD transfers after owners had asked him for years, but not because it was the right thing to do. Instead, he said it would be a “one-time amnesty” for a single quarter. Tesla used this to boost sales in the quarter.

Tesla ended up bringing back the incentive four more times when it needed to boost orders, making Musk a liar for saying it would only be for a quarter. By claiming it’s only for this one time, Tesla is creating urgency in trying to get people to upgrade – instead of doing the right thing and offering everyone who bought FSD the ability to transfer until Tesla actually delivers on its promise.

Electrek’s Take

‘Vox populi, Vox Dei’. That’s funny. It’s Latin for “the voice of the people, the voice of God.” But it should be more “vox necessitatis, vox pecuniae,” which is “the voice of necessity, the voice of money.”

That’s not by popularity. If Tesla were doing what owners wanted and what is right, FSD transfer would be permanent and available to any Tesla owner who purchased the FSD package, until Tesla delivers on what it promised.

Tesla is doing this now because it needs it. It already has no backlog of orders for the new Model Y in the US and it is testing out these incentives before going back to offering 0% financing, likely in the coming weeks.

Something interesting to note is that these incentives are both technically loyalty incentives, as they apply to existing owners.

Tesla used to have incredible customer loyalty, but that has changed in the last few months due to Elon Musk.

I’d be curious to see how successful they are and if it can convince some people who swore off Tesla because of Musk to actually get another one.