Tesla Adds $76bn in a Day, Cuts Model 3 Price for HK, Macau

Tesla's shares closed up 5.51% on Monday, adding roughly $76 billion to its market value in a single session and pushing the company past $1.45 trillion — a jump that landed the same week it quietly rolled out a cheaper, stripped-down Model 3 for buyers in Hong Kong and Macau.

Tesla's Hong Kong website now lists a rear-wheel-drive Model 3 at HK$205,000, about 175,900 yuan, 8.5% below the previous base model, according to Chinese financial outlets including Sina Finance and 21jingji. In Macau, the same trim starts at 252,000 patacas, roughly 209,800 yuan — still cheaper than the 235,500-yuan starting price for the standard Model 3 sold on the mainland.

The $76 billion figure is a calculation, not a company-reported number: it follows from Monday's 5.51% share gain applied to Tesla's roughly 3.95 billion shares outstanding.

The cheaper Hong Kong and Macau car keeps Tesla's drivetrain and driver-assistance hardware but strips comfort features — fabric seats, a seven-speaker stereo instead of the standard system, a single 18-inch wheel option, no rear-seat entertainment screen or cabin ambient lighting, and free paint in "mystic grey" only. Maximum charging power drops to 175 kilowatts, though Tesla's listed range actually rises to 572 kilometres. It's the third time Tesla has rolled out a similarly reduced-spec model regionally, after comparable moves in the United States and South Korea.

Monday's rally tracked broader enthusiasm for Tesla's robotics and autonomy plans, not the Hong Kong pricing news, which Chinese outlets had already reported a day earlier. Trading volume reached about 61 million shares, some 46% above Tesla's three-month average, as the S&P 500 slipped 0.33% and the Nasdaq Composite eased 0.12%. Traders were positioning ahead of Thursday's invite-only Cybercab event in Austin, after Nevada regulators cleared Tesla to run up to 5,000 autonomous vehicles in Clark County.

Asked whether the discounted Model 3 will reach mainland China, Tesla customer service told Sina News it had "not yet received news" of any mainland launch for the variant.