Tesla has stolen the spotlight with the introduction of its Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive (RWD) in South Korea, from Giga Shanghai. The vehicle’s price at 40 million won ($31,600 USD) after state and local government subsidies, has resulted in a surge of orders, since launching back on July 13.
That’s according to the credit card industry, dubbing the orders the ‘Tesla craze’. Electronic payment industry and financial analysts say total payments to Tesla through credit card companies from July 14-17 have crossed a whopping 40 billion won ($31.6 million USD).
“The 14th alone saw a payment of around 35 billion won, leading to a staggering increase in Tesla payments by more than 10,000% and over 5000% more than earlier periods,” a representative from the payment industry commented, reports Naver (via @Tslachan). These payments are believed to be down payments for the Model Y RWD.
Usually, a car down payment is around 100,000 won ($79 USD), but Tesla has set a larger down payment of 3 million won ($2,370 USD) for the Model Y RWD. Looking at the payment industry data, an impressive 10,000 plus contracts have been signed in a short span of four days.
Tesla set the local sales price of the Model Y RWD at 56.99 million won ($44,951 USD), a strategy thought to be aimed at fully utilizing government purchase subsidies for electric vehicles that meet specific mileage conditions.
The credit card industry is thrilled with the ‘Tesla effect’, as it provides a chance to make considerable profits amidst a backdrop of rising operational costs and financial provisions due to increased market interest rates. Given that Tesla’s online-only contract signing system supports only card payments, credit card companies have secured an impressive 800 million won ($632,011 USD) in fees in just four days.
