Scalping orders, the price difference is easy over 10,000 yuan, and the "scalper" fights Tesla

Per reporter: Li Xing Per editor: Pei Jianru

The negative impact of the price increase of lithium carbonate has triggered a collective price increase tide of new energy vehicles, and since January, more than 20 brands have announced price increases, ranging from a few thousand to tens of thousands of yuan, making consumers cry bitterly.

When the tide is high, no one is an island, but some people are making a windfall.

"The transfer price that was just agreed upon is still 8,000 yuan, how can it rise by 4,000 yuan in the next second..."

Before the car buyer had finished speaking, the scalper was already impatient: "If you want it, decide as soon as possible, otherwise I will sell it to someone else." ”

Tesla's confusing behavior of three consecutive price increases in 8 days has made the group of car scalpers, which has disappeared, begun to be active again, and on a second-hand trading platform, orders for Models such as model Y at the end of 2021 have become sought-after goods.

Tesla's round of price increase journey began on March 10, three times to raise the price of the model, the highest increase of 30,000 yuan, which made many Tesla prospective owners who have been determined before the price increase saw the opportunity to earn the difference, there are order transfer prices of up to 10,000 yuan.

"Another order." On March 30, scalpers with the online name "A Salted Fish" told the Daily Economic News that in less than two weeks, he had helped more than a dozen users complete the order transfer.

For the "Cheng bite gold" halfway out, Tesla is very angry, originally it is a direct sales model of "no middleman to earn the difference", which allows scalpers to profit from it, which makes Musk, who dares to "fight" with the president on Twitter, how can he endure?

Image source: Visual China

In mid-to-late March, when Tesla CEO Elon Musk danced at the opening ceremony of the Berlin factory, a "commitment not to resell order" signed by car buyers was circulating on the Internet, hoping to block scalpers out of the door with regulations such as not going to the house within a year, 20% liquidated damages, and restricting the supercharging of related vehicles.

Where there are interests, there are rivers and lakes! Once the railway station, hospital, theater is the scalper's scalper's scalper's resale, and today's Tesla is also, because in this interest struggle, too many people are involved, not only scalpers, car owners, and even "change single people".

High profits lead to "scalpers"

From a distance, the exhibition hall of tens of square meters is crowded. Stepping into a Tesla Beijing experience center, you will be greeted by children playing outside the four exhibition cars, users who experience in and out of the exhibition cars, salespeople who follow the explanations, and consumers who sign test driving agreements.

Image source: Photo by reporter Li Xing

Behind the seemingly busy and orderly scene, there are some hidden secrets that cannot be seen, such as transfer, change, profit, share...

The cause of the incident stemmed from the price increase more than half a month ago, from March 10 to March 17, Tesla made three adjustments to the price of its two domestic models on sale, the Model 3 and The Model Y, with a price increase of 15,060 to 30,000 yuan. Among them, the domestic Model Y high-performance version of the model rose by 30,000 yuan.

"Now new energy vehicles are one price a day, do not buy now, worry about the price will rise later." My family and I were struggling to see the car before making a decision. A young couple who watched the car and test drove at the Tesla Experience Center told reporters.

"Now the pick-up time is based on the information displayed on the official website." Tesla showroom staff politely replied to the questions of car consumers, "Model 3 is about 24 to 30 weeks to pick up the car, mode Y is 10 to 14 weeks." ”

Tesla's market sales have not been affected by the three consecutive increases in 8 days, and consumers' enthusiasm for buying seems to be even higher. Some netizens directly called: "Tesla users who were determined before the price increase have earned tens of thousands of yuan before they have lifted the car, so that making money is faster than stock speculation." ”

"Pay a deposit of 1,000 yuan, you can make more than 10,000 yuan by changing hands, why not sell it?" Wang Rui, who made a decision before the price increase, said.

Obviously, taking advantage of the time difference and making quick money on transfer orders has paved the way for the emergence of scalpers.

Wang Rui hung up the resale of two rear-wheel drive version of the Model Y orders he ordered in November last year, and the car was sold for 280,700 yuan after subsidies. At present, Tesla's official website shows that the rear-wheel drive version of the Model Y is priced at 316,900 yuan, which is 36,100 yuan higher than zhang Rui's timed price.

Image source: Salted Fish APP

Recently, the order transfer price is still rising. Wang Rui has raised the resale price of his original order from 8,000 yuan to the current 12,000 yuan. As for the reason for raising the transfer price, Wang Rui said bluntly: "Tesla's recent price increase has been too strong. ”

There are not a few people like Wang Rui who change orders to the outside world, and the transfer prices given are different. Take the second-hand resale platform salted fish as an example, enter the word "Tesla order", that is, pop up a large number of mark-up transfer Tesla order information. The reporter learned that due to the different vehicle order prices, pick-up times, etc., the resale prices set by different "scalpers" are different, and the transfer price ranges from 3,000 yuan to 12,000 yuan.

For example, The transfer Model Y order hung by Wu Hui in Beijing shows that the delivery status is "ready for vehicle delivery", and the transfer price given is 5,000 yuan. "5,000 yuan (including 1,000 yuan deposit) transfer, do not accept any bargaining." Wu Hui introduced to reporters that only spending a few thousand yuan can save 36,000 yuan, and you can also directly skip the waiting period of about 4 months to pick up the car, which is very cost-effective.

Changing hands can make up to tens of thousands of yuan at a time, which is the business opportunity seen by "scalpers". The reporter found a lot of information on the model Y and model 3 orders made before the round of price increase in some second-hand transfer platforms, Tieba, forums, and circles of friends, and the transfer price was about 5,000 yuan. There are "scalpers" threatening to collect a large number of Model Y orders, how much to have, and to give money when found.

"Scalper": Money can be done when it is in place

Tesla has always required users to pay a deposit of 1,000 yuan to determine the vehicle order and not allow the transfer.

"When placing an order, the customer must sign an electronic version of the agreement prohibiting the transfer of the order form, and make it clear that the pick-up person information must be consistent with the information of the person who made the order." Tesla salesman Zhang Yiwei (pseudonym) told the Daily Economic News that there is only one situation in which order transfer can be carried out, that is, between the immediate family members of the order user.

In many cases, Tesla's strict defense, so that the transfer transaction of the order can only be completed in the form of transfer, that is, the original order is sold to the new car buyer in the form of a second-hand car transaction after the purchase of the car is completed.

As for the provisions of the "No Resale Commitment Letter" not to be settled within one year, Tesla sales staff told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that the purchase of more than 2 units has this restriction, mainly to prevent scalpers from scalping.

Image source: Photo by reporter Sun Tongtong (data map)

The cumbersome process of buying and selling used cars, as well as the provision of restricting the purchase of two units, has obviously hindered the efficiency of scalpers' order operation, so the "transaction" that directly changes the name on the order has also come into being.

"As long as the money is in place, it can be done." This is the "scalper" engaged in the transfer of Tesla vehicle orders said the most to reporters.

Chen Feng is a second-hand car dealer who has acquired Tesla orders on major second-hand platforms, and at the same time acts as an "intermediary" to provide transfer order services between customers who buy Tesla orders and users who sell orders according to customer needs. "Whether to change the name directly or do the second-hand car transfer process, it is decided according to the customer's wishes, and we can all operate." Chen Feng told reporters.

In the conversation with Chen Feng, he learned that the difference in orders for Tesla he bought and resold was about 14,000 yuan. "The model Y order amount of 276,000 yuan was 8,000 yuan and sold for 298,000 yuan." He said that 8,000 yuan is the current market price for orders at this price.

Chen Feng told reporters that if the customer wants to transfer the order, only the owner of the car needs to take a picture of the name page of the personal account book to him, and then he will handle all the operations.

In addition to Chen Feng, a number of "scalpers" who have many orders in their hands told reporters that they can do things if they have money, directly change their names, and do not need to transfer. For how to operate, Chen Feng only said that they have their own set of operating procedures to ensure that they can do a good job.

Unlike Chen Feng and other "scalpers", Zhou Ying is a personal order transfer user. She transferred an Order for the Model 3 that was placed in January. "As long as the person who takes over the order doesn't tell the outside world, I have a way to change the name of the order directly to him, instead of doing 'transfer' processing." Zhou Ying told reporters.

According to Zhou Ying, she completed the transfer by renting the purchase order indicator. "It is equivalent to having an indicator usage agreement between us, I do not have indicators, but orders are placed in the name of the buyer's indicator. When applying, you only need to provide the relevant information such as the indicator use agreement signed by both parties, the indicator confirmation, and the watchmaker's ID card. Zhou Ying said, "This is not what I came up with, it was told to me by the customer commissioner in charge of Tesla." ”

However, Tesla internal staff repeatedly stressed that Tesla orders are prohibited from transfer. "Now we are particularly strict in checking this behavior, the indicator person information can not be changed, and it is not recommended that everyone take this risk." Don't let the company pick up the car after buying the order, the loss is still the interests of the buyer. The above-mentioned Tesla internal staff told reporters.

Although Tesla has repeatedly reiterated that "orders cannot be transferred", as of now, it is not uncommon for people who are making profits from it. In addition to scalping and scalping Tesla orders "scalpers", the market has also begun to provide services for handling the transfer of Tesla Model 3 and Model Y orders.

"Handle the tesla Model 3 and Model Y order transfer, can be reconfigured, need to find their own orders, the transfer is not successful, no charge, the transfer fee is 2500 yuan." A service provider who provides Tesla's order transfer promised reporters, "Do not go through the household process, directly change the name, and do not want money if you are not successful." ”

"A salted fish" introduced to reporters that he can provide Tesla order transfer information modification services, with a success rate of 100%. "In less than two weeks, I've successfully transferred more than a dozen orders." "A salted fish" said that as long as the user has this demand, and the person who sells the order is willing to cooperate, he will guarantee the success of the order.

However, compared to other people who provide order transfer services, the fee proposed by "a salted fish" is twice as high, that is, 5,000 yuan. "This service is not something I can operate alone, and there are still people behind it who 'offer advice.'" "A salted fish" said that he was a "middleman", only taking a small head (about 1,000 yuan), and the big head was taken by the "single person" behind him. Because the risk of manipulating the modification information is borne by them.

According to "a salted fish", he is an old Tesla owner, Tesla after continuous price increases in the second-hand platform found that such an order transfer service is simple operation and the intermediate profit is very large. "As long as the user who sells the order cooperates with the Tesla side of the communication, we come up with the relevant information for the program and the application for the name change." If it is fast, it can be done in 24 hours, and the slowest can only take three days. "A salted fish," he said.

As for how to operate, "a salted fish" only means that as long as you find a good reason, you can succeed. "As for what reason we are looking for, I can't tell you, after all, this is also 'intellectual property'." "A salted fish," he told reporters with a smile.

The reporter learned that the people behind "giving advice" for "a salted fish" are the insiders of the "company". "In fact, Tesla will not be too strict, because some users have no money to buy or other reasons after paying the deposit, which is also Tesla's loss." For Tesla, who buys it or not? "A salted fish," he said.

In response to Tesla's internal personnel privately operating to change orders for profit, the above-mentioned Tesla internal staff told reporters that this "transfer order service" is in violation of the company's regulations, and once it is found, the company will deal with it strictly.

However, the successful users of its service forwarded by the reporter "A Salted Fish" exchanged information with the Tesla customer commissioner and found that due to the fact that there were too many people consulting to modify the name of the order, Tesla employees said in the delivery group that the company was doing orderly queuing.

Tesla moves to cure the "scalper"

The surge in orders to resell Tesla models has also led Tesla to act.

"The act of reselling orders at a higher price violates the original intention of price transparency under our company's direct operation model, and is also unfair to users who buy cars after the price increases." The relevant person in charge of Tesla told reporters that after receiving complaints from customers about scalping orders in the market, the company began to crack down on "scalper" scalping orders.

Image source: Sina Weibo

Tesla has already formulated a "commitment letter not to resell" before the third round of price increases. "This agreement is for users who have multiple Tesla orders in their personal names, mainly to prevent the occurrence of 'scalper' scalping orders." Tesla customer service staff said that Tesla's original intention of adopting a direct sales model is to be open and transparent in price and a unified national price, and the "scalper" buying and scalping behavior undermines the company's pricing principles. This is also a way for companies to safeguard the rights and interests of consumers in fair trade.

The content of Tesla's "non-transfer commitment letter" that was exposed showed that Tesla requires the owner of one or more cumulative orders to purchase multiple Tesla vehicles to sign a "non-resale commitment letter", promising and guaranteeing: "The purchased vehicle will not be transferred or actually transferred to any third party within 365 days after picking up the car." If the commitment is violated, the penalty will be paid within 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, as well as services such as supercharging. ”

Many users have received notice that Tesla commissioners have signed a "non-transfer commitment letter". For those users who refused to sign the "non-transfer commitment letter", Tesla only said: "The specific handling method is subject to the notification of the docking commissioner." ”

"Our background query found that there are more than two orders under the name of the user, will arrange a special docking commissioner one-on-one contact with the user to sign this agreement." The relevant person in charge of Tesla China stressed that Tesla will strictly crack down on any behavior and individual that violates Tesla's direct operation model and wants to profit from it.

For Tesla's behavior of letting users sign a "non-resale commitment letter", many people think that this behavior is very relieving. In this way, the "scalper" will not be so rampant in buying and reselling Tesla orders.

"We already have two fuel vehicles in our family, and now we want to buy an electric car for ordinary people." Hu Xi told reporters, "I believe that as long as you don't want to make a difference by buying and selling Tesla vehicles, you won't mind signing such an agreement." When the reporter visited the Tesla experience center, many consumers who watched the car in the store said that they were fully acceptable to sign the "commitment letter of no resale".

Although Tesla formulated this agreement to curb the phenomenon of "scalper" scalping orders, from the current "scalper" public acquisition of Tesla orders on major platforms, this practice has little effect.

On the other hand, for Tesla to formulate and let users sign a "non-resale commitment letter", some people directly called for "relief", and many people believe that Tesla's move infringed on the personal rights and interests of consumers.

"After the money has been paid, the car belongs to my personal property, why not let me resell it?" A prospective user of Tesla who made up his mind to buy said he could not accept Tesla's approach.

"Tesla's 'letter of commitment not to resell' that Consumers sign restricts consumers' right to exercise ownership, and the terms in it are obviously 'overlord clauses' and have no legal effect." Liao Jianxun, a partner at Guangdong Guoding Law Firm and a public interest lawyer, said in an interview with reporters, "After the owner buys a car, who he wants to transfer to is the consumer's right to freely dispose of the property." Tesla has no right to make such a provision, nor does it have the right to require consumers to sign this agreement with it. ”

Song Hongyu, a lawyer at Tahota Law Firm, also gave the same opinion. "Tesla's 'non-resale commitment letter' restricts consumer rights, conforms to the standard terms in form, and restricts consumers from exercising ownership rights in content, so it is more likely to be invalid." Song Hongyu said.

The phenomenon of scalping orders has long existed

In fact, the phenomenon of scalping orders has been around since the end of last year. "I thought that I would be able to drive a new car a few years ago, but I didn't know until I went, don't say years ago, I can pick up the car in March!" At the end of last year, Feng Tao (pseudonym), who intends to buy new energy vehicles, said in an interview with reporters.

According to Feng Tao, after getting the new energy vehicle indicators at the end of last year, he began to choose the right model in the market, but after a big circle, he found that most of the brand's hot-selling models need to queue up to book, and the waiting cycle is as short as 2 to 3 months, and the long time is even queued up to the middle of 2022.

Different from the traditional sales model, many new energy vehicle companies currently accept users to book vehicles by paying deposits in advance. This has also led to the rise of transfer order transactions. "In order to be able to buy a car as soon as possible, some users of some second-hand commodity trading platforms have sold orders on hand, which allowed me to find a shortcut to buy a car as soon as possible." Feng Tao said.

The reporter searched for "model + transfer order" as a keyword, and found that the new energy models of the current popular brands can find the corresponding transfer information in some second-hand item trading platforms. Many sellers claim to have orders for models placed a few months ago, and can modify the car buyer information to buyers by transferring orders, shortening the pick-up time, and some models also have early-term exclusive rights. "If you buy an order for 2021, not only will it be faster to pick up the car, but it will also be more than 5,000 yuan cheaper than the current order, which is still very attractive to me." Feng Tao said.

Taking the hot-selling model Extreme Kr 001 as an example, the model opened the reservation channel on April 15, 2021, according to the booking time from morning to night, the preferential policy from the initial 5,000 yuan deposit to 20,000 yuan car model all the way down to the current 5,000 yuan deposit to 15,000 yuan car model. This also means that the earlier the order is placed, the higher the discount. For example, before July 2021, the transfer price of this model is more than 10,000 yuan, and the order transfer price around October is more than 5,000 to 6,000 yuan.

A few days ago, the reporter inquired about the transfer orders of different models and found that there were not a few people who wanted to quickly pick up the car with Feng Tao who wanted to purchase the right to transfer the order through a markup. Salted fish statistics show that all kinds of new energy vehicle order transfer information has been patronized, and the number of people who have the intention to buy is as high as hundreds.

Eager to pick up the car, the attraction of the price difference before and after the increase in price makes many people more willing to choose to get the car in the form of mark-up order transfer. The high profit attracts more and more "scalpers" to join the ranks of buying and reselling new energy orders. "Now some of the orders for reselling new energy vehicles will make money, come and test the water, but I feel that the previous orders that doubled (made money) at every turn are getting less and less, and there is no oil and water left." Before reselling orders for new energy vehicles, Li Changfeng, who called himself "Upside Down", mainly made a living by reselling tickets for various performances.

Dong Jian, a senior "scalper", also began to regularly update the information of resale vehicle orders on his personal circle of friends and the personal homepage of a second-hand goods trading platform at the end of last year. The reporter found that in the past year, he had thirteen successful transactions in the "treasures sold" column, ranging from 3,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan.

In the industry's view, the rise of the market behavior of price increase to achieve order transfer is closely related to the advent of the price increase tide of new energy vehicles. "The price of the order transfer is less than half of the price increase." Zhang Yi, another order transfer, told reporters with a smile that he could spend less money to buy a car, and the car pick-up cycle was shorter, so why not enjoy it?

Stable raw material prices to curb order resale?

Since Tesla launched the "8 days and three rises" price increase offensive on March 10, including BYD, Chery New Energy, Xiaopeng, Nezha, Zero Run, Geometry, WM, Euler, Ideal, Zero Run, etc., almost all new energy vehicle brands that consumers are familiar with except Weilai have issued price increase notices.

Image source: Nezha Automobile WeChat public account

The rising tide of new energy vehicles has come, so that "scalpers" have seen business opportunities. The reason why new energy vehicle companies have increased prices is, in the final analysis, the soaring price of raw materials.

Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said that the soaring prices of raw materials have increased the pressure on the manufacturing costs of new energy vehicle companies that are already difficult to make profits, and they have to alleviate the pressure by raising prices.

In the view of Li Bin, chairman of Weilai Automobile, the rise in raw material prices is not caused by the imbalance between supply and demand in the market, but more caused by market speculation.

Chen Shihua also said that this wave of soaring prices of important raw materials is out of line with the law of market development, which cannot be simply reduced to the contradiction between supply and demand, which is an irrational price increase. One of the important drivers behind it may be that some people hoard goods, resulting in shortages and local supply and demand contradictions. At the same time, the market is also suspected of artificially taking advantage of the opportunity to speculate.

Image source: Per reporter Han Yang photo (data map)

In addition to the influence of subjective factors, Chen Shihua also proposed that the strong demand for new energy vehicles has brought about a certain degree of increase in the prices of important raw materials in the upstream; the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and other factors have triggered fluctuations in the prices of some important raw materials; since the outbreak of the epidemic, the economic recovery of various places has been different, and the supply of raw materials in some areas may be affected to a certain extent.

Li Bin said that he hopes that some lithium ore and lithium carbonate manufacturers can start from the long-term interests of the entire industry and not artificially create prices, which is not a good thing for the development of the overall new energy automobile industry.

In view of the current rise in the price of upstream raw materials, the China Automobile Association suggested that the relevant competent departments of the government should strengthen the macro-control of the bulk raw material market, focus on meeting the production needs of power batteries, moderately accelerate the development progress of domestic lithium, nickel and other resources, and focus on cracking down on unfair competition such as joint hoarding and price gouging. At the same time, strengthen the upstream and downstream supply and demand docking of the new energy vehicle industry chain to ensure the supply of medium- and long-term power battery raw materials.

In fact, the competent state departments have long been clear about unfair competition behaviors such as hoarding and price gouging. In May 2021, the executive meeting of the State Council pointed out that multiple measures were taken to help small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households cope with the impact of upstream raw material price increases. Support large enterprises to build a supply and demand docking platform for the industrial chain of key industries, use market-oriented methods to guide the upstream and downstream of the supply chain to stabilize the supply of raw materials and the coordination of production and marketing, and do a good job in ensuring supply and price stability. Crack down on hoarding and price gouging.

In the view of Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Federation, the soaring price of raw materials will not last too long. He believes that with the introduction of relevant policies and the gradual stabilization of market development, raw material prices will gradually return to normal trading prices. With the gradual recovery of raw material prices, the sales price of new energy vehicles will gradually return to normal. "After the factors affecting the price and delivery period of new energy vehicles are resolved, the situation of 'scalper' scalping orders will also be gradually resolved." Cui Dongshu said.

Daily economic news