Published: 4:00pm, 5 Feb 2025 Updated: 4:03pm, 5 Feb 2025 Tesla is offering a fresh round of subsidies in mainland China, firing the first salvo in the Year of the Snake to gain an upper hand over local companies like Xpeng and BYD in the cutthroat electric vehicle (EV) market. Advertisement Buyers of its Shanghai-made Model 3 sedans would receive an 8,000-yuan (US$1,098) subsidy for vehicle insurance, the US EV maker said on Wednesday as businesses reopened after the Lunar New Year holiday. It also said it would offer a five-year interest-free loan to eligible customers, which amounts to 20,000 yuan in savings. Tesla said the incentives represented the biggest promotion for all its Model 3 editions – priced at 227,500 to 331,500 yuan – since late 2019, when its Gigafactory outside Shanghai started operations. “It is the first time that insurance subsidies and interest-free loans are offered together to Chinese customers,” the company said in a statement. The offer ends on February 28, it added. 02:01