Tesla's restriction on owners reselling new cars has caused controversy, and Mdoel3 orders have been speculated to 25,000 yuan in half a year

Economic Observation Network reporter Pu Zhenyu recently issued an online document that "restricts consumers from reselling vehicles", which made Tesla once again attract attention. According to the "Letter of Commitment not to resell" transmitted online, consumers who sign the document need to promise not to transfer or actually transfer any vehicle to any third party within 365 days after picking up the car, and if they violate the commitment, they will pay a penalty of 20% of the invoice price of each defaulted vehicle within 7 days, otherwise Tesla has the right to restrict the binding account change of the defaulted vehicle and services such as supercharging.

Not all consumers are required to sign this document, which mentions that it is only for consumers who have placed one or more cumulative orders for more than one Tesla vehicle, and Tesla has reasonable grounds to confirm with the consumer himself the purpose and purpose of the vehicle.

In response to this matter, the Economic Observer Network reporter interviewed Tesla, as of press time has not received a reply. Some people close to Tesla told the Economic Observer Network reporter that "there is indeed such a thing."

Tan Pu, a lawyer at Chongqing Shengshi Wenhui Law Firm, told the Economic Observer Network that according to the provisions of the Civil Code, the sales contract between the two parties has been completed after the delivery of the payment and the performance of the delivered products. The supplementary agreement violates the provisions of Article 26 of the Consumer Rights protection law, and makes provisions restricting and excluding the rights and interests of consumers, which should be invalid.

Although Tesla has not publicly spoken out on the matter, Tesla's intention to restrict consumers from reselling new cars is considered a measure to combat "scalpers". As an electric vehicle company that adopts a direct sales model, Tesla's crackdown on "scalpers" is its obsession with controlling the price system of new cars.

New car price increases spawn "scalpers"

Since 2021, due to the epidemic and the impact of supply and demand, the price of raw materials upstream of electric vehicles has continued to rise, and has been transmitted to the price increase of electric vehicles. According to statistics, in the past five months, Tesla has raised the price of models five times in the Chinese market. In March this year, after the latest round of price adjustments, the price of the Model 3 entry-level model has increased to 279,900 yuan. In this context, resale of Tesla orders began to occur frequently.

On March 23, the Economic Observer Network reporter saw on the second-hand goods trading platform Idle Fish that some users transferred the September 2021 Model 3 entry-level model order at a price of 25,000 yuan. The user said on the platform that the amount of his order at that time was 235,000 yuan, which was 44,900 yuan cheaper than the current official website price. The seller's order has not yet been traded, and the platform shows that the buyer is willing to buy an order of 10,000 yuan.

However, since Tesla officially prohibits the transfer of orders, it is very difficult for "scalpers" to directly change the order information to others. It is understood that in addition to extremely special circumstances such as immediate family members, Tesla orders cannot be directly transferred.

Therefore, the subject of the "Tesla order transfer" transfer transmitted on the Internet is actually not an order, but a new car. A Model 3 order transfer seller told the Economic Observer Network reporter that after the buyer purchased his order, he needed to pick up the car with him when the order was delivered, and he would transfer the car to the buyer as soon as possible after picking up the car, and the entire transaction was completed in person.

This means that the owner of the Model 3 order actually ends up with a "used car" of the new car color. In this regard, the above-mentioned buyers said that the warranty of Tesla motors is also transferred at the time of vehicle transfer, and Tesla currently has no additional preferential treatment for the first car owner, so the subsequent owners will basically not lose after-sales rights.

In fact, under the tide of raw material price increases, not only Tesla is a car company, but also tesla. But from the perspective of risk and return, Tesla, which has the most price increases, is undoubtedly the best target of "scalpers" at this stage.

From the cost point of view, Tesla only needs to pay a deposit of 1,000 yuan when it first pays, even if the later order cannot be sold and smashed in the hand, the loss of the "scalper" is only 1,000 yuan. From the perspective of revenue, Tesla has the most frequent price increases among a number of electric vehicle brands, and the price difference between different periods is very large, and the larger the price difference means that the more profitable the "scalper".

Obsessively controlling the price system

On the issue of the new car price system, Tesla has fallen. Tesla CEO Musk has said that when Tesla first entered China in 2013, speculators and "scalpers" created the illusion that market demand was "extremely high". Later, when speculators canceled orders, inventories increased. Tesla's "speculative sequelae" recovery period in the Chinese market continued until 2015.

Since then, Tesla has been opposed to third-party resale of new cars. In July 2020, a merchant launched the Model 3 10,000-person group purchase activity on the e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, and declared that "the group price of 10,000 people is ¥251,800". Compared with the price of the new car on the official website, the group purchase price is preferential of 40,000 yuan. In this regard, Tesla warned at the time that it had not cooperated with relevant merchants or Pinduoduo, and reserved the right to pursue the legal responsibilities of relevant parties.

Subsequently, the "tearing" between the two sides began to affect consumers. In August 2020, a Wuhan car owner who grabbed the pinduoduo group purchase quota said that after placing an order from Tesla's official website and paying, Tesla refused to deliver the car "in violation of the prohibition of resale clause clearly agreed in the order terms" and canceled the consumer's order. Subsequent Tesla, car owners, and Pinduoduo have conducted multiple rounds of games on this issue.

Yan Jinghui, an analyst in the automotive industry, told the Economic Observer Network that Tesla's crackdown on third-party resale of new cars is not only to maintain the new car price system and ensure the normal operation of direct sales channels, but also to maintain its own brand image and the retention rate of second-hand cars.

For the "Letter of Commitment not to resell" on the Internet, some consumers expressed their understanding of Tesla's behavior in the network speech, saying that this move will help to crack down on "scalpers", but at the same time, Tesla should not restrict the legitimate rights and interests of consumers who subsequently purchase the car, and does not recognize the clause that "Tesla has the right to restrict the modification of the defaulted vehicle binding account and services such as supercharging".

Temple said no business can exempt itself from liability through restrictive clauses. If you refuse to provide services to consumers accordingly, you may be liable accordingly.

It is worth noting that even if consumers sign a document of non-resale commitment, Tesla needs to continue to pay attention to the subsequent dynamics of relevant car owners in order to implement the provisions in the document. Temple said companies must also obtain consumer consent if they want to collect consumer information. If consumers' personal information is infringed, the company is still liable.