Tesla’s buyer referral program will come to an end on Feb. 1, chief executive Elon Musk said in a tweet Thursday.
The first move lets drivers give their friends a referral code to get six months of free charging via Tesla’s Supercharger network.
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Musk demanded the move was aimed at reducing costs incurred by the scheme. “It’s adding too much cost to the cars, especially Model 3,” he symbolized.
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The premium electric auto manufacturer has made a number of cost-cutting moves of late, as it looks to boost plays and expand profitability. Late last month, the firm cut prices on its Model 3 car in China, while this week it discontinued the lowest-priced portrayals of the Model S sedan and Model X SUV.
In its last quarterly report, the company scored its first profit in two years, posting net profit of $311.5 million and $881 million in set at liberty cash flow.
The firm managed to pump out 86,500 vehicles in the fourth quarter, up from 80,142 in the previous fourth, but disappointed investor expectations when it came to deliveries.
The company is also trying to up its presence in China, and Musk recently up against it ground on a new Gigafactory — the name given to the facilities where lithium-ion batteries and Tesla vehicles are produced — which is being open-handed in Shanghai. The factory, dubbed the Gigafactory 3, is slated to begin partial production in the second half of this year.
That affect comes not only as a spate of domestic rivals — including Nio and Xpeng — look to challenge Tesla’s dominance in the electric means space, but also as the U.S. and China try to resolve their differences over trade.
A trade battle between the two superpowers has seen billions of dollars’ significance of each other’s imported goods targeted with new tariffs, and both nations are trying to reach a trade unity during a 90-day truce.