Musk tweets Tesla to end customer referral plan because of costs

Reuters
Tesla Inc. founder Elon Musk speaks at the unveiling event by "The Boring Company" for the test tunnel of a proposed underground transportation network across Los Angeles County, in Hawthorne, California, U.S. December 18, 2018. Robyn Beck/Pool via REUTERS

(Reuters) - Tesla Inc's customer referral incentive plan will end on Feb. 1, the electric carmaker's Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Thursday, citing costs.

Musk tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1085779971333705728ed that the referral program is ending because "it's adding too much cost to the cars, especially Model 3".

The billionaire in the past few months has been pushing for cost-cutting initiatives to boost the company's profitability.

Introduced in 2015, personal referral codes gave new buyers six months of free supercharging and prizes for existing owners such as launching personal photos into deep space or invites to a Tesla event.

Tesla operates its own stores but does not use franchised dealers or traditional advertising and marketing.

(Reporting by Sayanti Chakraborty in Bengaluru)