[mikeash]

I'm guessing this is a bit of misdirection. Outright discounts on the purchase price probably were rare and not supposed to happen, as he says. However, from what I've seen from new buyers in that period, it was nearly universal for Tesla to waive the $1,200 "destination fee," which is effectively a $1,200 discount on the purchase price. They also have a referral program going which gets you $1,000 off, although that's been going for something like a year now and isn't new for Q3. That's a $2,200 total discount on many vehicles, which isn't a whole lot on a car that starts at $66,000, but it's something.