Tesla has delivered about 10,000 examples of its Model 3 sedans so far but has thus far failed to deliver on one important item that was central to why this model garnered so much hype: its $35,000 base price. First U.S. deliveries of the standard-range (220 mile) version of the Model 3, still expected to start at that price, now aren?t due until ?late 2018,? according to Tesla, while dual-motor, all-wheel-drive Model 3 versions are expected to start in what the company terms ?mid-2018.?
The cars produced so far have been the single-motor version with the longer-range battery pack, a configuration that carries a plump sticker price in the low to mid-$50,000s?nearly what the original Model S was supposed to start at six years ago.
The Model 3, however, has been championed as Tesla?s mass-market car, one that could effectively cost $27,500 or less?just $25,000 to California customers who can take full advantage of the Golden State?s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) rebate and the $7500 federal EV tax credit. But that base version may arrive into a very narrow window in which buyers can take full advantage of those incentives. Tesla expects to reach the federal tax credit?s cap of 200,000 vehicle deliveries in late 2018; that would trigger a yearlong period in which the amount of the credit would step down, first to $3750 for six months and then to $1875 for another six months, before expiring altogether.
Tesla continues to grapple with a conundrum that?s quite different...