Tesla’s recent price reduction strategy has sparked concern in the auto industry, and many competitors have expressed their views. This time, the European CEO of South Korea’s Hyundai, Michael Cole, has come forward to explain his views on electric car pricing.
Cole said at the Reuters Automotive Conference in Munich that Hyundai will not directly change its pricing strategy, but rather give consumers a stable signal so they don’t have to worry about prices fluctuating up and down frequently. This is apparently a criticism of Tesla’s price adjustments from time to time.
“We’re not going to make what I would call a blind follow-the-leader reaction to mimic what our competitors are doing …… We know that Tesla’s price cuts will attract some consumers who haven’t considered Tesla before, so, of course, we’re going to focus on that,” Hyundai Motor Europe CEO Michael Cole said.
In addition, Cole said Hyundai wants to be confident in its pricing strategy, implying that there will be no major changes in Hyundai’s retail prices in the European market for the time being. Hyundai has launched several electric cars, such as the Hyundai IONIQ 5, which competes with the Tesla Model Y.
Hyundai is not the first automaker to take a stand against Tesla’s price cuts. The company makes the R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV, and its CEO RJ Scaringe said there would be no change in the price of its “flagship” product.
Also, Ford CEO Jim Farley has compared the Tesla-induced price war to Henry Ford’s price cuts for the Model T starting in 1913, saying that the current price cuts are “a worrying trend” and that Henry Ford’s strategy ultimately put the company at risk.
According to a recent Bloomberg report, the Tesla Model Y is now the company’s best-selling model in the U.S. market, and it is cheaper than the average price of a new car or truck in the United States.
