- Nike selling less shoes than would sell in the market.
- Nintendo selling less of the latest game console.
The shortage (as defined by needing a waiting list) is artificial if the seller can either raise the price or increase the amount provided. (Tesla is probably more the former than the latter)
I know what artificial shortages are in general, but I don't understand how it could apply to Tesla. They've been building as many cars as they can as fast as they can for years now, and there's no sign they're going to stop any time soon.
They plan to ramp up production to meet demand, and they think their pricing is at the correct point for that. What should they do, start out with a higher price for early orders, then bring it down? I don't think people would like that behavior at all, and it sure doesn't seem to me like an "artificial shortage" to keep the price at the level where you think it should be in the long term.
If their pricing decision creates a shortage, that meets the technical definition of an artificial shortage. The term doesn't necessarily have a negative connotation.
In the steady state a market 'naturally' balances supply and demand through pricing. If you choose not to do that, the effects you create are 'artificial'.
It doesn't make sense to me to apply the word "shortage" to a situation where you're taking reservations for a product that isn't yet released. Their steady state for the past couple of years has been a wait of a month or two from order to delivery (for American customers, people overseas have to wait a lot longer for transportation) which doesn't seem like it would be in the realm of "shortage" for a car.
