Tag: Tesla

For those who wish to purchase Tesla, now might be the time.

Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the electric car company cut prices of several models sold in the U.S. by percentages including 14% off the Model 3 sedan and nearly 20% off its baseline Model Y crossover.

The company’s share price dropped over 3% on the news on Friday, the outlet added.

Tesla has also had a rough year. It has faced a 65% drop in share price since January 2022, a record-breaking low for the company. Demand slowed down, and many, including investors and analysts, felt that CEO Elon Musk should not be spending so much time and money on Twitter and instead focus on Tesla.

Related: Tesla Investors Complain That Elon Musk Is Spending Too Much Time on Twitter — On Twitter

“In cutting the prices of its current models, Tesla is indicating that it is willing to concede some profit in order to increase sales volume,” The New York Times wrote.

Some of the cuts, depending on how many add-ons Tesla customers include with their purchases, make it possible for customers to qualify for a tax credit as per Inflation Reduction Act, the WSJ noted.

The credit gives buyers $7,500 for electric car purchases under $55,000.

Similar price cuts were done in Europe as well. Prices were also cut for Teslas sold in China.

Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities who follows the company, said it is “no secret that demand for Tesla is starting to see some cracks in this global slowdown,” in a text to Entrepreneur.

He called the cuts “eye-popping,” because of the amount.

“While the initial reaction to these cuts will naturally be negative on the [Wall Street] at first, we believe this was the right strategic poker move by Musk & Co. at the right time,” Ives added.

A man is facing charges for what authorities say is purposely driving his Tesla off of a cliff in the Devil’s Slide area in California.

Courtesy Cal Fire.

“CHP investigators worked throughout the night interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence from the scene,” said the California Highway Patrol in a statement, per a local ABC station.

“Based on the evidence collected, investigators developed probable cause to believe this incident was an intentional act,” the statement added.

All four passengers survived the drop off the 250-foot cliff in a well-known, dangerous stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway. Brian Pottenger, battalion chief at the Coastside Fire Protection District, spoke with Entrepreneur via phone Tuesday about the rescue.

“That stretch of road, this is a fairly regular occurrence for us — and, typically, most people succumb their injuries in an accident like this,” he said. He also called the rescue an “absolute miracle.”

Authorities are now claiming the plunge was not an accident.

Related: ‘An Absolute Miracle’: 4 People Survive 250-Foot Cliff Fall in Tesla Car

Dharmesh Patel, now identified as the driver of the car, is a 41-year-old radiologist from Pasadena, California, per the Post. Patel is now facing accusations that he attempted to kill his family, according to a the local ABC affiliate and the Post.

The two kids and another adult who were reported to be in the car at the time of the crash have been identified as Patel’s wife, Neha, and the couple’s two children.

Pottenger said that he and his team are sad to hear about the arrest, but they won’t let the news take away from the fact that they were able to rescue four people.

“It’s disheartening,” he said.

Patel’s employer, Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles, told the ABC affiliate in a statement that it is “deeply saddened to learn of a traffic incident involving one of our physicians and his family. We are extremely grateful there were no serious injuries,” and that it will not comment further.

After Patel leaves the hospital, he will be taken to jail on the charges of attempted murder and child abuse, per the CHP.

During the crash Monday, a Tesla ran off the side of the cliff and rolled before landing among the rocks, according to a video statement from several California agencies.

This morning, a vehicle with 2 adults and 2 minors went over cliff at Devil’s Slide in @sanmateoco. Witnesses saw the accident and called 911. The car plunged hundreds of feet down the cliff and landed on the beach. All four patients were successfully rescued. Watch the video! pic.twitter.com/HUM2SJ56Oy

— CAL FIRE CZU (@CALFIRECZU) January 3, 2023

After arriving, rescuers went down, noticed movement in the car, hoisted up the children with stretchers, and the two adults were rescued by helicopter, per Pottenger.

Pottenger told Entrepreneur previously that the car was in “surprisingly decent shape.” He also said he has personally been involved with about 10 rescues in the area in the last two and a half years.

The area is known to be dangerous, per The San Francisco Chronicle.

Patel’s neighbors were surprised to hear that the crash was being thought of as intentional, per the ABC affiliate.

“They’re, like ideal neighbors,” Sarah Walker, neighbor, told the outlet. Another called them “lovely people.”

Xaviar Steavenson and his sister Alice recently decided to rent a Tesla to drive from Florida to Wichita, Kansas. Along the way, they had to stop six times in just one day to recharge their rental because, according to Steavenson, the battery was draining “faster than it would charge.”

The Bold Bureau | Shutterstock

Business Insider reports that Steavenson indicated that initially, he was driving 2 ½ hours before recharging. However, he said he and his sister “ended up having to stop every one to 1 ½ hours to charge for an hour, then an hour and a half, then two hours.”

Steavenson pointed out that it “was between $25 and $30 to recharge,” then said that in only one day, he and sister Alice “stopped six times to charge at that cost.” He added that Hertz‘s website states that renting a Tesla is “always cheaper than gas” — something he said wasn’t true for him.

Steavenson reportedly said a Hertz agent told him the company had “no idea why they’re having issues.” He also claimed the agent said they’d received “nothing but Tesla calls” that day.

Contacted by Insider for comment, a Hertz rep said the company had “not experienced a significant increase in communication from customers about the battery of their EV rentals.” However, “battery range varies by vehicle manufacturer and can be influenced by multiple factors including weather and driving conditions.”

According to Steavenson, Hertz recommended he pick up a new ride at the closest branch. So he did, but said the location didn’t “have Teslas there or not even the equivalent,” so he was returning home “in a Nissan Rogue Sport.”

Business Insider noted another report from a Virginia radio host who said he was stranded after his Model S would not properly charge at 19 degrees Fahrenheit — the same host featured in a New York Post breakdown published on Dec. 29, 2022, about viral videos from Tesla owners documenting their vehicles failing in extreme cold.

Customers who have had the same experience as the Steavensons are likely to take note of this: South Korea fined Tesla $2.2 million on Monday for overstating “the driving range of its electric vehicles, which turn out to be shorter in cold weather.”

It’s been a wild ride for Elon Musk. After becoming the second person to ever become worth $200 billion in January 2021, followed by his signature company Tesla reaching a market capitalization of $1 trillion, Musk has seen $200 billion erased from his net worth.

Taylor Hill | Getty Images

There’s no need to set up a GoFundMe. The Twitter owner and Tesla CEO is unlikely to ever run out of money. Still, according to Bloomberg, he does stand alone astride a bonfire of money, partly because his Twitter purchase may have torpedoed his Tesla fortune.

Bloomberg has more:

Musk, 51, has seen his wealth plummet to $137 billion after Tesla shares tumbled in recent weeks, including an 11% drop on Tuesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His fortune peaked at $340 billion on Nov. 4, 2021, and he remained the world’s richest person until he was overtaken this month by Bernard Arnault, the French tycoon behind luxury-goods powerhouse LVMH.

Tesla has been synonymous with EVs for years. Since Musk purchased Twitter, in particular, Tesla’s dominance in branding and market share has declined. Investor worries have caused shares to drop by 65% across 2022.

Bloomberg notes that Musk has sold such a large percentage of his Tesla stock that his most significant asset is now Space Exploration Technologies Corp. in addition to his 42.2% stake in SpaceX.

Elon Musk hasn’t been too worried, tweeting statements like “Tesla is executing better than ever!” as recently as Dec. 16, when the EV company’s stock was $150 a share.

As of Jan. 3, 2023, Tesla stocks — selling for $383.20 on Jan. 4, 2022 — were down to $108.10.

In what has been called a “miracle” on Monday, four people survived a 250-foot-plus drop off a cliff in California while in a Tesla, according to a video statement from several government entities — the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the San Mateo County Fire Department, and the Coastside Fire Protection District.

Courtesy Cal Fire.

Brian Pottenger, battalion chief at Coastside, was involved with the rescue and told Entrepreneur via phone that the area is known to be treacherous.

“That stretch of road, this is a fairly regular occurrence for us — and, typically, most people succumb their injuries in an accident like this,” he said.

It was an enormous surprise that the four people survived, he added.

Four people in a Tesla car, including two children ages 4 and 9, went over the side of a cliff in an area known as Devil’s Slide on Monday. The car was going south on Route 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, per the video statement.

This morning, a vehicle with 2 adults and 2 minors went over cliff at Devil’s Slide in @sanmateoco. Witnesses saw the accident and called 911. The car plunged hundreds of feet down the cliff and landed on the beach. All four patients were successfully rescued. Watch the video! pic.twitter.com/HUM2SJ56Oy

— CAL FIRE CZU (@CALFIRECZU) January 3, 2023

It appears to have been a problem area for a long time. Per a 1997 story from The San Francisco Chronicle, at least 16 people in 11 years prior died in the area from car-related accidents.

The rescue area. Courtesy Cal Fire.

This is despite efforts to make it safer. “For decades, the postcard-worthy landscape has befuddled engineers and terrorized drivers with its winding asphalt atop eroding bluffs. Dozens of people have driven off the road, many plummeting to their deaths on the rocks or in the surf below,” the outlet wrote in a story about accidents in the area published in June.

Pottenger told Entrepreneur that he has been involved in about 8 to 10 rescues in the area before.

After the crash, witnesses called 911, per NBC. Then, according to the video statement, (where Pottenger is also speaking) the rescuers went down with ropes — and saw one person, at least, moving in the backseat.

Rescue workers at the scene. Courtesy Cal Fire.

Rescue helicopters arrived within about 20 minutes. But, in the meantime, they hoisted up the two young people.

“I didn’t want to wait for the helicopters to get there to get the kids out,” Pottenger said.

Then, they were able to rescue the adults via helicopter.

The adults’ rescue. Courtesy Cal Fire.

The AP also noted that, at this time, California authorities do not believe the car was in one of Tesla’s assisted driving modes, such as Autopilot or Full Self-Driving. At least the latter mode has been linked to at least one crash, and they have faced a lawsuit over misleading claims. (Neither is actually “fully” self-driving.)

Pottenger said that he cannot be sure if the Tesla car itself is why the victims survived but had previously called surviving the fall an “absolute miracle.”

“I can tell you that the vehicle was in surprisingly decent shape considering the amount of fall and the amount of force,” he noted.

The two young people had “moderate injuries” per the video statement, but the two adults suffered “traumatic” injuries, per the outlet.