Musk says Tesla high pricing 'embarrassing'

After a series of increases this year alone across the Tesla model range, company CEO Elon Musk has admitted that prices for the US brand’s electric cars are now at “embarrassing” levels.

Blaming COVID, supply chains and growing inflation, Musk made the surprise comments concerning the cost of the Tesla Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X on a call with investors.

He also claimed that pricing might be wound back as soon as later this year, if the economy improves.

“We’ve raised our prices quite a few times … They’re frankly at embarrassing levels,” Musk said during a Q2 earnings call, as reported by Automotive News.

“But we’ve also had a lot of supply chain and production shocks and we’ve got crazy inflation.

“I think inflation will decline towards the end of the year … I’m hopeful – and this is not a promise – but I’m hopeful at some point we can reduce prices a little bit.

“Right now, our problem is very much production.”

Musk expects the company will continue to improve its production output throughout the remainder of the year.

“We’ve had many 30,000-car weeks already, so I think a 40,000-car week is within our reach by the end of the year,” he said.

Against the backdrop of high pricing, Tesla had its most productive second quarter yet, with Musk claiming that the car-maker is now on track to produce more than 1.2 million vehicles per annum by next year.