AUSTIN: Tesla Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk said today the electric automaker could lower prices for cars if inflation calms down.
Musk, who has over 100 million followers on Twitter, was replying to a tweet today that asked if the company had any plans to lower prices that it had raised to beat the pandemic and supply chain woes.
"If inflation calms down, we can lower prices for cars," Musk tweeted.
Tesla has raised car prices a number of times in the past few months by a few thousand dollars as costs of raw materials for aluminum to lithium used in cars and batteries surge, while automakers struggle to source chips and other supplies due to an industry-wide shortage.
Musk, the world's richest person, in recent weeks warned about the risk of a recession and said he had a "super bad feeling" about the economy.
US consumer prices jumped 9.1% to a nearly 41-year high in June, as gasoline and food costs remained elevated. The surge spells tough times for companies that are now looking to cut costs and alter their hiring plans.
In other Tesla news, a German court has ordered Tesla Inc to reimburse a customer most of the €112,000 (RM503,000) she paid for a Model X SUV because of problems with the Autopilot function, Der Spiegel reported today.
A technical report showed the vehicle did not reliably recognise obstacles like the narrowing of a construction site and would at times activate the brakes unnecessarily.
This could cause a "massive hazard" in city centres and lead to collisions, the court ruled.
Tesla lawyers argued Autopilot was not designed for city traffic, according to Der Spiegel, to which the court said it was not feasible for drivers to switch the feature on and off manually in different settings as it would distract from driving.
Tesla was not immediately available for comment and declined to comment to Der Spiegel. The court was not immediately available for comment.
US safety regulators are investigating Tesla's Autopilot function after reports of 16 crashes, including seven injury incidents and one death, involving Tesla vehicles in Autopilot that had struck stationary first-responder and road maintenance vehicles.
Tesla says Autopilot allows vehicles to brake and steer automatically within their lanes but does not make them capable of driving themselves.
Musk said in March that Tesla is likely to launch a test version of its new "Full Self-Driving" software in Europe later this year, depending on regulatory approval.
"It's quite difficult to do full self-driving in Europe," he told workers at Berlin factory at the time, saying much work needs to be done to handle tricky driving situations in Europe where roads vary a lot by country.
