Used Tesla car prices drop puts an end to flipping as Gigafactory idling extends into January

Tesla cars have gone from production scarcity and unprecedented demand to languishing on dealer lots much longer than your average vehicle, according to the used vehicle database of Edmunds. This negative development happened in the span of a few short months, as just this summer Elon Musk was apologizing that Tesla car prices are at "embarrassing" levels, yet noted that the price hikes may continue as the main challenge before the EV maker was not sales but rather production ramp-up to satisfy the demand.

Used Teslas, which often commanded higher prices than new ones this year, since people preferred to get them now instead of waiting for months on end, stayed on dealer lots for 50 days on average in November, much longer than the used vehicle average of 38 days. About a third of used Teslas for sale this summer were 2022 models, after all, compared to just 5% of used vehicles from other brands, indicating that a big chunk of Tesla vehicles were acquired to flip them at a higher price later.

Flipping Teslas for profit is an increasingly losing game now, which may start weighing on the price of new vehicles that on top of that Tesla recently cut by US$7,500 to offset the federal subsidy wait. The average used Tesla car price dropped to US$55,754 last month, a whopping 17% decrease from the US$67,297 that second-hand Teslas used to cost during the summer demand peak. The December sales data is not in yet, but considering the generous discounts and incentives that Tesla is now offering on new vehicles for delivery this month, used Tesla car prices may drop even further, or their resale period may get longer.

The current manufacturing pause at Tesla's biggest Gigafactory in Shanghai, on the other hand, which Tesla explained away as being typical at this time of the year on account of production equipment maintenance, may be extended into January as well. Reuters has obtained the Giga Shanghai production plans, and it seems that Tesla's biggest global factory will work just 17 out of 31 days next month.

The bulk of the Model 3 and Model Y production pause in January will be attributed to the holidays, though. Tesla reportedly plans to restart production only in the January 3-19 period, and then shut down the factory again for an extended Chinese New Year break which will run until January 31.

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