that the price cuts won't do any good if the majority of potential customers remain unaware of the real savings and positive experience around owning a Tesla.
"I’m not asking that Tesla spend on advertising that it could spend on product quality, engineers or battery technology," Black said."I’m asking that Tesla take 5-10% of the billions it will spend to cut price and try advertising to educate non-EV users why they should buy an EV."CEO Elon Musk has made clear his disdain for advertising in the past, he noted in May that the company would"try a little advertising and see how it goes.
"I don't want to be going top-speed into uncertainty," Musk said."I'm not saying things will be bad. I'm saying they might be."Tesla delivered 435,000 vehicles for the quarter, below Street expectations of 455,000. The company said it still anticipated 1.8 million deliveries for the year. VIEW press/Getty ImagesBut his overall stance on advertising remains directly inverse to Black's position.
"Informing people of a car is great. But they cannot afford ... doesn't really help," Musk said."That is really the thing that must be solved is to make the car affordable for the average person." "I still think relying on price cuts rather than advertising is a mistake when the average person is clueless about how easy Teslas are to charge and how inexpensive they’ve become, but I’m excited Tesla is starting to advertise," BlackThe price cuts pushed Tesla's gross margin down to 17.9% for the quarter, down from the 25.1% margins the company reported in the year-ago period.