Price cuts boost demand 

Tesla Inc’s (TSLA.O) aggressive price cuts have ignited demand for its electric vehicles, Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Wednesday, playing down concerns that a weak economy would throttle buyers’ interest.

The company slightly beat Wall Street targets for fourth-quarter revenue and profit earlier on Wednesday despite a sharp decline in vehicle profit margins, and it sought to reassure investors that it can cut costs to cope with recession and as competition intensifies in the year ahead. Deep price cuts this month have positioned Tesla as the initiator of a price war, but its forecast of a 37% rise in car volume for the year, to 1.8 million vehicles, was down from 2022’s pace.

However, Musk, who has missed his own ambitious sales targets for Tesla in recent years, said 2023 deliveries could hit 2 million vehicles, absent external disruption. Tesla’s sales prospects, as it confronts a weaker economy, are a key focus for investors. The company said it maintains a long-term target of a compounded 50% annual rise in sales.

https://www.reuters.com/

Sales volume in the country is expected to rise

India has officially booted Japan out of the number three spot in the global automotive market. Latest industry data, reported on by Nikkei, shows that for the first time ever, India is now the third largest global auto market.

For 2022, the country’s new sales came in at 4.25 million units, based on preliminary results from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. This figure tops Japan’s 4.2 million units for the year. Japan’s sales in 2022 were down 5.6% from 2021.

Between January and November, India had delivered 4.13 million new vehicles. The total hits 4.25 million after adding December’s sales volume reported Sunday by Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker, the report says. And sales volume in the country is expected to rise: there are still year-end results and sales figures for commercial vehicles that have yet to be included into the 2022 totals.

https://oilprice.com/

Brokers fear a frozen market 

Manhattan apartment sales fell by 29% in the fourth quarter, sparking fears of a frozen market in which buyers and sellers stay on the sidelines due to economic and rate fears.

There were 2,546 sales in the quarter, down from 3,560 last year, according to a report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel. The decline was the largest since the third quarter of 2020, during the depths of the pandemic. Prices also declined for the first time since early 2020, with the median price down 5.5%.

The declines in both sales and prices mark the end of the roaring comeback in Manhattan real estate after the worst days of the pandemic and raise fears of continuing weakness into the new year. Rising interest rates, a weaker economy and a falling stock market, which has an outsized impact on Manhattan real estate, are all likely to weigh on the market this year.

Analysts say their big worry is a prolonged standoff between buyers and sellers — with sellers unwilling to list amidst falling prices and buyers pausing their searches until prices fall further.

https://www.cnbc.com/

Record for Tesla’s Shanghai factory 

 Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) delivered 83,135 China-made electric vehicles (EVs) in September, smashing its monthly record, according to a report released on Sunday by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

The number marks an 8% increase from August and set a record for Tesla’s Shanghai factory since production began in December 2019, topping the prior deliveries high of 78,906 in June, as the U.S. car maker continues to invest in production in China.

“The record high sales of China-made Tesla cars showed electric vehicles have been leading the mobility trend,” Tesla said in a brief statement.

Globally, Tesla last week said it delivered 343,830 EVs in the third quarter, a record for the world’s most valuable automaker, but less than the 359,162 analysts on average had expected, according to Refinitiv.

Tesla quickened its China deliveries after suspending most production at the Shanghai plant in July for an upgrade, which has brought the factory’s weekly output capacity to around 22,000 units compared with levels of around 17,000 in June.

https://www.reuters.com/

Sales to the United States soared 31% compared with 2019

Champagne sales reached an all-time high last year, handily beating a previous mark set in 2019, as the relaxation of pandemic-related curbs fueled a surge in exports, notably to the United States, producers said on Monday.

While French producers already said last year they expected a sales record, they now confirmed 2021 sales hit $5.7 billion, 14% above the pre-pandemic high. Exports reached 180 million 0.75 litre bottles, up 37% from 2020 and 15% more than in 2019, while sales in France jumped 25% from the previous year to match 2019 sales at 140 million bottles, Union des Maisons de Champagne (UMC) told reporters.

Sales to the United States, champagne’s top export market, soared 31% compared with 2019, reaching a record 34 million bottles. The U.S. market has grown in each of the past 10 years, apart from the slump suffered in 2020 because of lockdown measures, UMC data showed.

https://www.reuters.com/

US imposes a 25% tariff on vehicles produced in China

Tesla shares fell on news out of China that the company’s sales there dropped in April and the electric-car maker led by billionaire Elon Musk reportedly opted against buying more land to turn its Shanghai Gigafactory into a base for global exports.

Sales of Tesla vehicles in China last month dropped 27% to 25,845, nearly a 10,000-unit decline from March, according to Global Times, a government-affiliated news outlet, citing China Passenger Car Association data. Separately, Reuters reported that the company decided not to purchase land adjacent to its Shanghai plant to build a new facility to build Model 3s for export to markets including the U.S., which imposes a 25% tariff on vehicles produced in China.

Tesla fell $11.84, or 1.9%, to close at $617.20 in Nasdaq trading on Tuesday, after earlier declining 5.3%. The shares are down about 13% so far this year.

The sequential sales decline in April and modified production plans come after Tesla was criticized as “arrogant” last month for its handling of a highly publicized customer complaint about a braking issue with her vehicle and government officials raised concerns that cameras on Tesla vehicles created a potential security risk, barring them from Chinese military facilities. The company has taken a conciliatory tone to ease concerns about both issues, and Musk said last month that cameras are not activated outside of North America to randomly collect data.

https://www.forbes.com/