Tesla says Model Y now cheaper than a Toyota Prius hybrid as it loses most valuable car brand title

The incessant Model 3 and Model Y price cuts that Tesla has been doing in the past year or so, as well as CEO Elon Musk's antics seem to have resulted in some market perception loss, after all.

According to the latest Brand Finance report on the world's most valuable vehicle logos in 2024, Mercedes-Benz is back at the car brand value top with $59.4 billion in intangible assets against Tesla's $58.3 billion. Others popular such rankings, like that from Interbrand, put Mercedes ahead of Tesla as well, but the list there is topped by Toyota.

Tesla Model Y vs 2024 Toyota Prius price

It is precisely Toyota that Tesla is now comparing its bestselling model with and in terms of pricing at that. The world's top selling vehicle, the Model Y, is now apparently cheaper than a 2024 Toyota Prius in the European market, and Tesla wants everyone to know that electric cars are no longer more expensive than the world's most popular hybrids.

The new Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid starts from €45,990 in Germany, while the Model Y is now just €44,990 there, even after the modest price bump that Tesla did there last week. A small, but important difference, as it pits the most popular electric and hybrid vehicles against each other on their pricing merits.

BYD, Tesla's largest competitor and the world's biggest EV maker, did something similar this week when it announced that it will destroy ICE-only cars with the pricing of its electric vehicles. Immediately after, it announced cheaper facelifted EV and hybrid versions of its perceived Tesla Model 2 competitor, the BYD Dolphin, and made their starting prices the same.

The message coming from the world's largest EV makers seems to be that electric cars are no longer expensive compared to their gas-powered competitors. Numerous market studies have shown that price, range, and charger density are the biggest obstacles before mass EV adoption.

Tesla, as well as BYD seem to have taken the hint on those points now that sales are slowing, despite Elon Musk's tease that Tesla is doing Model Y price cuts on "seasonal demand" grounds.

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