Tesla Sales: Seven-Year Low-Interest Loans Do Not Significantly Boost Sales, Applications Often Rejected

January 27th news: Recently, several major domestic car manufacturers have started offering disguised price reductions through car financing policies. Brands like Tesla, Xiaomi, and Li Auto have all introduced financial policies such as 3-year interest-free loans and ultra-low interest loans for 5 or 7 years.

However, at the implementation level, ultra-long-term low-interest loans have yet to achieve a significant promotional effect. "CarFans" published an article today detailing the perspectives of Tesla's frontline sales staff regarding the brand's latest policies.

Sales representatives indicate that currently, the number of customers coming in to view the Model 3 is slightly lower than for the Model Y, approximately a three-to-seven split. The best-selling model remains the standard rear-wheel drive version, priced at 235,500, with over 70% opting for this configuration.

Tesla has launched an industry-first 7-year low-interest loan this month, with an annualized rate as low as 0.7%. For a Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive priced at 235,500 yuan purchased with a mortgage, the down payment is only 63,466 yuan, the loan amount is 181,600 yuan, the monthly payment is 2,268 yuan, and the total interest over the loan period is 8,898 yuan, significantly lowering the barrier to entry for car ownership.

A customer is looking at cars and seems to be on a tight budget. They are interested in the 7-year low-interest loan and are aiming for the lowest possible down payment and the longest loan term when purchasing a vehicle.

However, when processing his loan application later, we ran a pre-screening with several partner banks, but none of them could approve it. It turned out the client had high debt and overdue payments on his credit report. As a result, the loan still hasn't been approved.

I've been struggling with this for days and am at my wit's end. On one hand, the customer is pressing for an answer so they can buy the car; on the other hand, the loan won't go through, making the purchase impossible. Fortunately, they haven't paid a deposit yet. Otherwise, it would have been a real headache if the loan failed and they had to ask for a refund.

So sometimes I feel quite helpless about these super long-term financial policies. Clients with good credit don't need such long loans, a five-year interest-free period would be good enough. And clients with poor credit can't get approved for such long loans anyway.

Do you think this policy is meaningful? It certainly grabs attention, but the reality is that we frontline sales haven't seen any improvement in sales since the policy was introduced.