Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Friday the electric automaker could lower prices for cars if inflation calms down.
Musk, who has over 100 million followers on Twitter, was
replying to a tweet on Friday that asked if the company had any plans to lower
prices that it had raised to beat the pandemic and supply chain woes.
"If inflation calms down, we can lower prices for
cars," Musk said in a tweet.
Tesla has raised car prices a number of times in the past
few months by a few thousand dollars as costs of raw materials for aluminum to
lithium used in cars and batteries surge, while automakers struggle to source
chips and other supplies due to an industry-wide shortage.
Musk, the world's richest person, in recent weeks warned
about the risk of a recession and said he had a "super bad feeling"
about the economy.
The US consumer prices jumped 9.1 percent to a nearly
41-year high in June, as gasoline and food costs remained elevated. The surge
spells tough times for companies that are now looking to cut costs and alter
their hiring plans.
Last month, Musk said that the electric vehicle maker's
total headcount will increase over the next 12 months, but the number of
salaried staff should be little changed, backtracking from an email just two
days ago saying that job cuts of 10 percent were needed.
"Total headcount will increase, but salaried should be
fairly flat," Musk tweeted in a reply to an unverified Twitter account
that made a "prediction" that Tesla's headcount would increase over
the next 12 months.
Musk in an email to Tesla executives on Thursday, which was
seen by Reuters on Friday, said he has a "super bad feeling" about
the US economy and needed to cut jobs by about 10 percent. © Reuters