Kia offers crazy incentive to steal Tesla drivers, Elon Musk responds

Kia is offering a crazy incentive to steal Tesla drivers, and Elon Musk has words for it.

Kia is offering $1,000 off an EV6 or $1,500 off an EV9, but the deal is exclusive to Tesla owners or leasees. It’s an effort to take Teslas off the road in favor of Kia’s EVs, which have garnered good reviews from their owners.

Incentive programs have been lingering for the past few years, catered specifically to bring Tesla drivers in and give up their cars for another brand. BMW launched a similar program several years ago:

Lucid also reportedly hung around Supercharger sites, giving test drives to Tesla owners in an effort for them to switch.

Kia’s program, first reported by CarsDirect, is an interesting strategy, considering EV car buyers already receive sizeable rebates and incentives through government programs.

However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk found that the incentive program was rather humorous, especially considering the fact that the incentivizing only goes one way:

For comparison’s sake, Tesla is a far more chosen brand than Kia in terms of EVs, but it is important to note that Kia has not been involved in the EV sector as long, nor does it offer as many cars as Tesla does.

In 2023, Kia sold nearly 155,000 EVs for the full year, while Tesla achieved 1.81 million units.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Joey Klender: Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his time at TESLARATI, Joey has broken several big stories, including the first images of the Tesla Model S Plaid, the imminent release of the 4680 Model Y through EPA certification, and several expansions to the Lucid AMP-1 factory in Arizona, to name a few. His stories have been featured in several publications, including Yahoo! Finance, Fox News, CNET, and Seeking Alpha. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on Twitter @KlenderJoey.
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