Tesla reveals Model 3 with $45,000 base price
Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed late Thursday that a new, lower-priced Model 3 sedan is available for sale.
In the past, Musk had said the base price for a lower-cost Model 3 would be $35,000 before a federal tax credit of $7,500. That electric vehicle’s battery would deliver an expected 220mile range. But this new model has a midrange battery that allows an estimated 260 miles on a battery charge, according to the Tesla website. There it shows the base price of the Model 3 as $45,000. With the tax break and $4,300 in gas savings taken into account, the car’s price drops to $34,400 with the destination and doc fee.
The new “lower cost, mid-range” Model 3, Musk said on Twitter, “costs $35k after federal & state tax rebates in California, but true cost of ownership is closer to $31k after gas savings.”
The new Tesla 3s with the midrange battery are expected to be delivered in six to 10 weeks, according to Tesla.
This new entry may attract those who cannot afford the highest-end Tesla models and perhaps entice some of the thousands who plunked down $1,000 deposits for the $35,000 base model to upgrade, says Akshay Anand, executive analyst for Kelley Blue Book.
“Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the changes are that AWD (allwheel drive) is now only available on the high-range version, while the midrange can only come with RWD (realwheel drive),” Anand said.
“There will be consumers who want to mix and match batteries with RWD or AWD, so Tesla should release its lowest-level trim with both options,” he said. “The hope now is that Tesla can still release its base trim for the Model 3 in a timely manner, as there is still no concrete timing there.”
Tesla’s Model S and X vehicles, which can cost more than $100,000, have become status symbols. But the current Model 3, which typically runs about $55,000 out the door, has put the Palo Alto, California, automaker on the radar of average car buyers.
Its move to make the lower-priced Model 3 available comes as Tesla has smoothed out its production line. During the third quarter, Tesla says it delivered 83,500 vehicles – more than 80 percent of the vehicles the company delivered in all of 2017. Its quarterly production of 80,142 vehicles during the three-month period was twice that of its previous high in the April-June quarter.
“As Model 3 production and sales continue to grow rapidly, we’ve achieved a steady volume in manufacturing capacity, allowing us to diversify our product offering to even more customers,” Tesla said in a statement to USA TODAY.
During the July-September period in the U.S., Tesla outsold Mercedes-Benz and could outsell BMW in the current quarter, according to an Atherton Research report in Forbes.