China-Singapore Jingwei, March 31st (Niu Chaoge Chang Tao) "You see the two Teslas in the screenshots. At that time, a total of 3,000 yuan was paid for the car, but now one car has increased by more than 20,000. I put this If you sell the two orders casually, you can earn more than 20,000 yuan." Zhang Cong introduced, and showed the "stock" in his hand to the reporter of Sino-Singapore Jingwei.
Zhang Cong is a professional white-collar worker, but now he has a new identity - a part-time Tesla order "scalper".
From March 10th to March 17th, in just 8 days, Tesla raised the prices of its products three times, but orders that had already paid a deposit before the price adjustment were not affected by the price increase, which made car owners who have already placed orders look at it. It's time to "get rich".
The price of the order has increased by 5,000 yuan in two days
A reporter from Sino-Singapore Jingwei noticed that on social platforms and second-hand trading platforms, there are a large number of buying or selling information for Tesla's popular model orders, including Tesla owners who ordered at low prices and special reselling orders. The professional scalper, Li Xia belongs to the latter.
"I received an order yesterday, and the transfer fee was 5,000 yuan. I picked up the car at the end of March. I heard it was too cheap. I hurried to his company in 10 minutes and signed it." On March 25, in a Tesla In the pull order transaction group, Li Xiazheng shared his latest transaction.
"The order transfer fee has risen very quickly. It was 5,900 yuan two days ago, and it has risen to 10,900 yuan today, which is outrageous!" Li Xia said.
Before the "three consecutive rises", Tesla has raised prices several times.
Since November 2021, the price of the Model 3 rear-wheel drive version has increased 4 times, the Model Y rear-wheel drive version has increased 3 times, and the two models with higher configuration have also increased the price twice.
In more than four months, the price of the Model 3 rear-drive version on sale has risen from less than 240,000 yuan to 279,900 yuan, and the Model Y rear-drive version has risen by 40,900 yuan.
Zhang Ang, who lives in Guangzhou, was the first to smell the business opportunity.
In December 2021, hearing the news of Tesla's price increase, Zhang Ang decisively booked two Teslas, and then she asked her family and friends to book a few more.
On March 24, as the pickup date for some orders approached, Zhang Ang started posting on social platforms to seek buyers.
"The order was released very quickly. Two orders under my name have been sold on the 25th, and now I am selling the order under my friend's name. The transfer fee is 10,000 yuan. I still have a few Model 3 orders in my hand. The car is always picked up at the end of April, if you are not in a hurry, you can wait." Zhang Ang said, "The price of the Tesla Model Y just sold was 281,000 at the time, and the current official website price is 316,900, even if Paying a transfer fee of 10,000 yuan is also more than 20,000 cheaper than booking from the official website, and there is no need for a long delivery wait.”
"The equivalent of buying a brand new used car"
In the above-mentioned Tesla order transaction group, in addition to updating the order price in real time, the group members will also discuss the order transaction method: how to pick up the car?
Need to transfer?
The Sino-Singapore Jingwei reporter noticed that there are a large number of detailed order trading strategies on social platforms.
The order transaction is essentially a vehicle transfer, that is, after the original owner of the order has completed the license plate, obtained the registration certificate, and then transferred it to the buyer, which is equivalent to the second-hand car transaction.
A person with successful transaction experience told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei reporter that after the buyer and the seller confirm their intention to transfer the order, they can sign an agreement.
Since Tesla did not allow the name change at the order stage, the buyer drove the car away when picking up the car. After 3 or 4 days, when the "iron card" was changed to the "iron card", he went to the DMV to go through the move-out and move-in procedures, and finally took the vehicle to drive. If you need to do insurance and transfer the ownership, the seller can not touch the car in the whole process.
Tesla responds
For the current rampant order reselling, Tesla has taken action.
On March 16, it was reported on the Internet that Tesla began to ask car buyers to sign a "No-Resale Order Commitment". For the case of individual ordering multiple Teslas, it is stipulated that no transfer or actual transfer to any third party will be made within one year. Tesla requires a penalty of 20% of the ticket price, otherwise it will limit the change of the bound account of the relevant vehicle and services such as super charging.
In response to this, Tesla responded to a reporter from China-Singapore Jingwei that the "No Resale Commitment Letter" is a measure to prevent reselling orders under certain circumstances. The purpose is to maintain a fair and transparent car buying environment and protect the rights of real car buyers. It will not have any impact on the normal car buying experience of ordinary consumers.
At the same time, according to Zhang Cong, when he consulted with Tesla’s sales, the other party told him that “you need to buy more than 5 units to have this limit.”
On the other hand, in the car purchase contract, Tesla has clearly stated that "resale is prohibited", but this restriction still has little effect.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Passenger Federation, pointed out that increasing the price of orders is one of the ways to effectively curb the spread of scalpers. "Tesla's deposit is 1,000 yuan. Even if the order cannot be transferred, the scalpers will suffer less losses. If the amount is larger , scalpers may consider the risk to reduce hoarding, and the orders circulating in the market will decrease accordingly."
Regarding scalpers' reselling orders, Tesla's official response said, "Tesla stores are directly operated, and all the rules are displayed on the official website."
The Sino-Singapore Jingwei reporter noticed that Tesla's official website shows that "after placing an order and paying the first payment, the first payment is non-refundable and non-transferable."
"For any pre-sale order that our company believes is for resale or other non-good faith purpose, our company has the right to unilaterally terminate this agreement." (Zhang Cong, Li Xia, and Zhang Ang are all pseudonyms in the text)