Are Tesla's price cuts really any different from legacy manufacturers increasing their incentives to boost sales? The effect is the same on the customer's price paid.
It's a matter of both degree and motive. Recent Tesla price cuts have gone as high as $31,000 for one model. I don't remember any manufacturer incentive programs that provided proportionately deep price relief, nor has there been any suspicion that a legacy manufacturer might have been trying to knock out a rival from competition with incentive programs.
The EV landscape is very different, with new entrants seeking to gain footholds in an industry with extremely high entry barriers and being in very precarious financial conditions at some stages. Knock-out blows are much easier to attempt in this landscape than in that of the legacy automakers.
In trying to tease out real motive in such cases, history and prior conduct become relevant circumstantial evidence. And Musk has an interesting history when it comes to Lucid.
For one thing, Musk attempted to secure Saudi financing to take Tesla private in 2017. He ended up with a lot of egg on his face when the Saudis disavowed a deal he publicly said was done and was further embarrassed when the SEC sanctioned him for attempted market manipulation. To make matters worse, Lucid snagged the Saudi EV investment funds instead, which was the turning point in Lucid's transition from product concept to product production.
Then Musk, in a blatant attempt to take Peter Rawlinson down a notch, issued bald-faced lies about Rawlinson's role at Tesla, claiming Rawlinson was nothing more than a minor chassis engineer. Musk again wound up with egg on his face when "InsideEVs" and other EV news outlets dug up the archived press release Tesla had issued at the time of Rawlinson's hire, announcing him as the Chief Engineer of the Model S and the person responsible for bringing to project to market. The embarrassment deepened when people began to dredge up old "Car & Driver" and "Motor Trend" articles from the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show in which Rawlinson was on the podium unveiling the Model S prototype to the public and identified as the Chief Engineer of the car.
Musk has since been on the internet claiming Lucid is on an irreversible path to failure and that bankruptcy is looming. This is an extraordinary way for the head of one automotive company to talk about another.
There may be a lot of reasons Musk is slashing prices at Tesla. But there is plenty of circumstantial evidence to suggest that among those motives is a desire to use any means at his disposal to eradicate Peter Rawlinson and Lucid from the scene.
For all his earlier talk about wanting to create an environment in which other EV makers join him in electrifying the world of transportation, Musk's behavior on many fronts has indicated anything but. If he thinks he sees an opportunity to deliver a knock-out blow to a competitor whose mere existence affronts his overblown but fragile ego, he'll take it -- and he'll take legal risks to do it, as he has with so many other matters.
P.S. In case you haven't noticed, I really, really don't like Elon Musk . . . and we now own our second Tesla.
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