Tesla Massively Reduces Prices. Here Are the New Prices and Why They Did It

Tesla makes their vehicles more affordable in regions around the world

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Tesla dropped prices on all models in several countries, which should not be surprising. It's unlikely it has anything to do with the company's plummeting value on the stock market, a perceived lower demand, or an effort to qualify for tax credits. Tesla's entire price drop game plan was forecast just a few days ago by a Tesla executive in China.

Tesla does not have a communications department. All the company information comes from its website, social media accounts or Elon Musk's Twitter account. That's why it was worth finding a translation of a rare interview a Tesla vice president gave to the media in China on January 9, 2023.

When Tesla Executives Speak, You Should Listen

Tao Lin spoke to reporters just days after Tesla dropped the prices in China. Her answers provided reasons behind the lower prices, not only in China but worldwide. "Some media said that we lowered the price because we couldn't sell anymore. I think it's really nonsense," Lin said. "I personally think that the price adjustment reflects our better planning for the supply chain in a sense, and what level the vehicle cost will be, and then we make such adjustments according to this estimate."

Lin then explained, "The price adjustment of a product is actually a forecast of the company's cost changes in the next period of time. The biggest difference between 2023 and last year is that the epidemic has basically passed. We believe that the supply chain has returned to normal to a large extent, and there will be no such unpredictable shortages of materials as in previous years, which brought cost uncertainty."

Tesla Supply Chain Certainty Indicated in Q3

During the third quarter earnings call, Musk spoke about supply chain issues that had hampered production during the pandemic. But he also discussed how the company had advanced in other areas and was optimistic about future production. "What we are seeing is practical improvements as we redesign the whole supply chain and all of the elements that go into a battery cell. We're figuring out dramatic efficiencies."

Zachary Kirkhorn, Tesla's Chief Financial Officer, answered a question about the Inflation Reduction Act during that same earnings call. There were not many details available at that time. Still, he stated, "it's difficult to fully determine the eligibility criteria, but we believe Tesla is very well-positioned to capture a significant share of that for solar storage and also electric vehicles."

Tesla's Transparency is the Problem

Some customers in China who bought a Tesla just before the price cut were furious. That's likely to be the case in other countries as well. However, consumers need to remember that Tesla is a direct sales model. How quickly everyone forgets auto dealers have been changing prices for decades.

Lin gave this example, "for a traditional car, everyone buys it at a different price at a dealer, so you don't really know whether the price you bought is the lowest or not, and you don't know what price other people are buying. Is it fair to consumers?"

Tesla has not only changed the automotive industry by making electric vehicles a viable product, but it also changed how people buy cars. "We adopted some relatively new concepts, such as the direct sales model, such as price adjustment strategies, and we hope to gradually make everyone feel that these concepts are feasible. Under the direct sales model, the prices are completely open and transparent, without discounts or price increases, and everyone is the same at the same time."

Price Reductions in the U.S.

We suspected these price cuts were coming as the EV tax credit in the US listed all Model 3s and Model Ys as qualifying for the tax credit. All variations of the Model Y now qualify for the $7,500 tax credit in the US.

The price cuts also affect many countries around the world such as Spain, France and Portugal. Although the reduced pricing of the Model S and Model X appears to be limited.

Below is a list of the new and previous prices of all Teslas models in the US and the percentage changed.

Tesla’s Sentry Mode Will Soon Play Music at Max Volume When Triggered

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Following Tesla’s Q1 2025 All-Hands Meeting, the company quietly updated the Cybertruck’s webpage. When we first checked it during our Live Space, nothing immediately stood out. At first glance, the changes seemed to be mostly stylistic—aligning the page’s format with the rest of Tesla’s site while adding a Cyber-inspired twist with unique fonts and boxed media elements.

But this morning, we took a closer look—because if there’s one thing Tesla loves, it’s hiding details in plain sight. And sure enough, we found an interesting change around Sentry Mode — playing loud music.

Sentry Mode Music

Tesla quietly updated the Sentry Mode section on the Cybertruck’s about page, adding new text that reveals Sentry Mode will soon be able to play loud music when it’s triggered. The text on Tesla’s site states:

“Enable Sentry Mode to monitor your unattended vehicle or trailer, and automatically activate the alarm, increase the touchscreen brightness, and play music at max volume if a threat is detected.”

That last detail—playing music at max volume—is a brand-new addition to Sentry Mode. Tesla has already expanded Sentry’s coverage to also cover attached trailers and previously announced that the system may soon honk in response to vandalism.

This latest change appears to build on that, leveraging the Cybertruck’s Superhorn and external speaker, which can already play music when parked via the Boombox feature. We suspect this feature won’t rely on the internal speakers, as the music would have to be extremely loud in order to be heard outside the car.

And given how loud the Superhorn and external speakers are—powerful enough to function as a proper horn—this could be an effective deterrent for vandals or intruders.

Other Models Too?

While this feature was spotted on the Cybertruck’s page, it’s unlikely that it’ll be exclusive to the stainless steel beast. We did a quick scan of Tesla’s other vehicle pages, but the change hasn’t made it over to other pages yet. While Tesla’s other vehicles don’t include the Superhorn, most are equipped with an external speaker for the Pedestrian Warning System (PWS)—which also powers the Boombox feature.

If your Tesla supports Boombox, it’s likely that Sentry Mode Music will roll out across the lineup once the update is released. However, legacy vehicles without a PWS will likely miss out on this feature.

When Will It Be Released?

To answer everyone’s favorite question, we know it’s not in Tesla’s 2025.8 update, which has recently started rolling out. Given the small 2025 releases so far (2025.2 and 2025.8), Tesla may be preparing a larger 2025 Spring Update similar to last year’s.

We’re about a month away from the arrival of Tesla’s Spring Update, and this could be one of the included features.

The real question is: Will Tesla allow custom sounds or music via USB? If so, the possibilities just got a whole lot more entertaining.

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New 'Wile E. Coyote' Wall Video Puts Tesla's FSD V13 to the Test

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Last week, Mark Rober, an engineering YouTuber best known for his glitter bombs, released a video where he tested Tesla's Autopilot against various conditions - including the iconic ACME painted wall.

During this test, many people noted that Mark was using Autopilot rather than FSD, even though his video was titled “Can you Fool a Self-Driving Car?”. The Tesla on Autopilot went up against a vehicle equipped with Luminar’s LIDAR rig, running some sort of basic autonomy or safety software.

New Video Tests FSD

Many people were disappointed with Mark’s video and his testing methods, so several creators got to work to actually test out Tesla’s FSD.

Creator Kyle Paul over on X made a much better follow-up video, using both a HW3 Model Y as well as an AI4 Cybertruck. In a relatively unsurprising turn of events, the Cybertruck was successfully able to detect the wall, slowed down, and came to a stop. The Cybertruck was running FSD 13.2.8.

Kyle’s team did a fantastic job building the wall and testing this in a private area using FSD rather than Autopilot. On top of that - they re-tested the results several times and recorded the entire thing in and out. While Mark’s video was more for entertainment, Kyle really set out to prove what would really happen in this unlikely scenario.

Sadly, the HW3 Model Y was unable to detect the wall, and manual intervention was required in each test. While the Model Y was running FSD 12.5.4.2 rather than an FSD V12.6 build, we don’t expect this to have had a significant impact on the test - this is more of an issue with how computer vision analyzes the environment.

There are several major differences between HW3 and HW4. The first is obviously that the version that runs on AI4 is more advanced, as the hardware is capable of processing a lot more data. However, AI4 also features much higher-resolution cameras than HW3, and Tesla recently added the ability for the video feeds to be processed at full resolution on FSD V13. This could have made the difference, although it’s not entirely clear. Perhaps if HW3 gets a version of FSD V13 in the future, HW3 can be retested to see if it passes the “ACME wall” test.

Watch

Kyle’s entire video is below. It’s only 10 minutes long, so definitely give it a watch. Props to Kyle on the quick and thorough execution.

What Does This Mean for FSD?

We broke down Mark’s test - and examined all the little issues that we discovered after doing some in-depth research - you can read our analysis here. 

Putting aside the issues with Mark’s testing and instead using the new results - it seems that if you were to have to fight against Wile-E-Coyote and his ACME tools with your Tesla, cartoon logic may win if you’re on an HW3 vehicle. If you’re on an AI4 vehicle, you’ll likely come to a safe stop.

Vehicle depth perception is definitely something that Tesla has been hard at work to improve - and some fairly drastic improvements came with FSD V13 that haven’t been entirely translated to FSD V12 just yet. Future versions of HW3 FSD may be able to determine that the wall is there successfully. So Kyle - if you’re reading this - don’t get rid of that wall. We’d love to see more testing in the future.

However, this entire test scenario is so out of left field… there is a good likelihood this same test would fool some human drivers as well. The most important part is that the future of autonomy will not fall for these tricks, so it's very unlikely for someone to weaponize this idea as it’d only possibly work on a small segment of vehicles.

If Wile-E-Coyote is after you, someone else may drive into the wall before your Tesla does.

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We’re not kidding, this really happened already. This isn’t a realistic scenario outside of someone trying to play an insane prank - but it’s good to know that FSD V13 is capable of dodging this.

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