Demand for electric vehicle giant Tesla’s (TSLA) – Get Tesla Inc Report cars has been rising, despite an ongoing supply chain shortage and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Thus far, it has been able to keep up with some of that demand.
The Austin, Texas, automaker made a total of 310,048 deliveries in the first quarter of 2022, including delivering its popular Model 3 sedan and flagship Model Y sports utility vehicle.
That was a sharp 67.7% rise compared to the same period last year, when the car maker delivered nearly 185,000 vehicles in the first three months of 2021.
Those strong numbers are telling, especially since automakers are raising car prices in response to rising inflation.
But Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk still had to raise prices across select models last month.
He warned users about the uptick in a tweet:
An Exodus Hits The Used Tesla Market
However, there is one place where you can find slightly cheaper used Teslas.
As coronavirus cases spread throughout China, people fleeing lockdown restrictions that might part them from their families are selling off their vehicles in a fire sale in Hong Kong.
That’s resulted in some steep discounts.
Data reviewed by Bloomberg found that the value of some Tesla models, including its Model X, have dropped as much as 15% in Hong Kong.
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Now many of those models are hitting that market at a major discount from their original sales price.
The numbers are based on Bloomberg’s analysis of the city’s largest used car dealership, Hong Kong Motor City, and its online sales data.
Even in Hong Kong, the auto sector had been reeling from the impact of demand outstripping supply for over three years, which had forced it to raise prices to accommodate inventory shortages.
But in a departure from that trend, the recent surge in cases has led to a decline in used car prices in Hong Kong.
Overall, the the prices of secondhand cars in Hong Kong peaked in the third quarter of 2021, then dropped 13% in the final three months of the year and have declined 10% so far in 2022, the same data found.
The U.S. Sees Used Tesla Demand Soar
In a reversal of that trend, the price of a used Tesla has shot up in the U.S.
“[A] one-year-old Model Ys, one of Tesla’s most-popular models, sold for an average of more than $65,000 in December,” an increase of roughly $2,100, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Used car and truck prices in the U.S. were up 35% in March from the previous year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Tesla rentals are also expensive.
U.S. rental car major Hertz HTZ, which ordered 100,000 Tesla cars last year, reportedly charges a premium of $100 a day for Tesla rentals, according to a Barron’s report from December 2021.
Tesla will post fiscal first-quarter results on April 20 next week. Wall Street is expecting earnings-per-share of $2.26 on sales of $17.5 billion according to FactSet data.
