Hyperdrive
The Secret That Explains the Price of the Cheapest Tesla
Elon Musk’s always-changing prices are unique in the auto world, and will be under the microscope like never before.
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If you want to predict how much Tesla’s cheapest car will cost at any given time, you just have to know one thing: the average price paid for a new vehicle in the US. Only $300 or so separates the two figures, on average.
It’s been that way from the start, according to a new analysis of pricing data compiled by Bloomberg. When the Model 3 went into production in 2017, Elon Musk touted a $35,000 starting price that almost exactly mirrored the $34,944 average cost of a new vehicle at the time. Five years and a burst of inflation later, a Model 3 costs $46,990, versus the $47,692 average in the US.