XPEV - Elon Musk's India Visit Tesla's FSD Subscription Price Slashed By 50% Nikola Plunges Amid Proxy Filing And More: Biggest EV Stories Of The Week | Benzinga
Electric vehicle stocks had a mixed week as they reacted to a hotter-than-expected March inflation reading and the prospect of the interest-rate environment remaining inclement for potential car buyers. That said, Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) ended a volatile week higher amid uncertainty about the company’s strategy toward robotaxis and sub-$30,000 EVs.
Here are the key events that happened in the EV space during the week:
Tesla Drops FSD Pricing And More: After making its “supervised self-driving” technology available for a free one-month trial in the U.S., Tesla has taken another step to increase its adoption.
“You can now subscribe to FSD (Supervised) for $99/month in the US,” Tesla said in a post via its X handle on Friday.
This is a steep reduction from the previously used subscription pricing of $199 per month. The price of an outright purchase remained at $12,000.
Commenting on the cut, Future Fund’s Gary Black said, “A $99/month subscription price would likely double the FSD take rate.”
CANACCORD Genuity’s George Gianarikas had said in a late-March note that he was an advocate of the razor/razorblade strategy for Tesla.
“We have been strong advocates of Tesla’s razor/razorblade approach in seeding the market with vehicles that are software upgradable with a high-margin software — and see this as a potential catalyst for future penetration gains,” he said.
Reports suggest Tesla CEO Elon Musk will head to India, with Musk himself confirming the plan on X. “Looking forward to meeting with Prime Minister @NarendraModi in India!” he said in a post.
Looking forward to meeting with Prime ...