Tesla Reportedly Offers New Incentives to Sell Cars. The Stock Rises Anyway.

Coming into Monday trading, Tesla stock was down about 18% year to date and up about 53% over the past 12 months. (Photograph by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Tesla stock rose Monday, brushing off a report that it has offered more incentives designed to arrest falling sales.

The electric-vehicle maker’s stock added 1.4%, closing at $335.16, while the S&P 500 finished flat and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.1%.

Tesla shares have been a little directionless lately. They managed to snap a three-day losing streak on Monday. Before that, they had racked up five consecutive gains.

The Monday move came after U.K. newspaper The Times reported that Tesla was offering big leasing discounts to boost sales in the country, citing industry sources. Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The EV maker has struggled to sell cars in 2025. It sold about 721,000 cars globally in the first half of the year, down about 13% compared with the first half of 2024. In Europe, first-half 2025 sales amounted to about 110,000 vehicles, down 33% year over year. That drop came despite a 25% increase in sales of all-battery electric vehicles. Tesla’s share dropped from roughly 17% to less than 10% in the region.

EVs have been getting harder to sell in the U.S., too. The average incentive for a new EV in July amounted to 17.5% of the average transaction price, according to data provider Cox Automotive, a record. What’s more, the average price for a Tesla in July was about $53,000, down 9.1% year over year.

Things have been difficult for Tesla’s car business, but the stock remains stable. Trading around $328, the share price is roughly $6 higher than the $322.16 level at which it closed on June 20—a couple of days before Tesla launched its self-driving taxi service in Austin, Texas.

It was a modest launch, with a handful of Tesla Model Y vehicles ferrying hand-selected passengers around a limited part of Austin with a safety monitor in the front passenger seat. Still, it was a big deal for investors who expect robo-taxis to unlock a new era of earnings growth for the auto maker.

Shares closed at $348.68 on June 23, the day after the robo-taxi service launch. They just haven’t been able to maintain any momentum since.

As always, the stock market is forward-looking, and most of the robo-taxi-related gains appear to have happened before the actual launch of the service. Shares gained 35% between Tesla’s Oct. 10 robo-taxi event, where management demonstrated robo-taxi technology, and when Tesla started ferrying passengers on June 22.

Now, investors appear to be waiting for factors such as additional cities and the removal of the safety monitor. Higher car sales could help, too.

Coming into Monday trading, Tesla stock was down about 18% this year and up about 53% over the past 12 months.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com