Here's why the 3 isn't a mainstream "affordable" car

[dreamingof3]

Can you imagine Toyota charging 1,000 for any other Camry paint than black?

35k is now 36k

Even with a gov credit that car is now 27,500 7,000 more than a 2017 Camry SE on clearance

Most people will not get this credit

But what about the wheels? If you want anything other than the lame aero wheels its now 37,500?

So 35k is now 37,500. We are getting into a range that is about 10k more than the average US car

But add the roof and base auto pilot and now we are at near 47k???

Please explain how 47k is a mass market affordable car?

Tesla was right when they said the model S is far superior. You are better off getting a used model S from the prices I've seen. I also cannot believe the loaded base model of the 3 is 59k. That is absurd

 

[WhiskySTL]

But what about the wheels? If you want anything other than the lame aero wheels its now 37,500?

To be fair, I doubt you even have the option of getting 19" wheels on a Camry. ;-)

 

[aznt1217]

What are you talking about? Why are you comparing a 3 to a Camry. Even so for a comparable camry new you're in the 30's.

The 3 competes in the space of the BMW 3 series/A4/C Class. These ARE considered mass market by volume. Once the cars drive on their own the cost of ownership drops significantly.

Yes a loaded Model 3 after tax is about 59K. What's your point? So is a 340i.

 

[cgiGuy]

Enjoy your Camry!

 

[sub]

Please show us where Elon/Tesla said "mass market affordable car"? I'll be here waiting.

Even if they said that, you can interpret it as "affordable to more people" which is clearly what they mean, or "affordable to everyone" which is moronic. You choose.

 

[siucity]

A brand new mainstream Honda Civic is only $18K! I can't believe the Model 3 is such a rip-off at twice that amount, and the 3 at that price doesn't have any options!

 

[kev1n]

i dont think the 3 is within civic/corolla territory yet.
camry/accord is probably getting close once you start adding packages to those cars
dont forget that youre also paying a slight premium to go electric(high battery cost still)
but its really targeted towards entry level luxury brands such as bmw 3 series, benz c class, lexus is line, acura ilx, you get the idea.

 

[SpiceWare]

Per KBB

average transaction price (ATP) for light vehicles in the United States was $34,968 in January 2017

So regardless the disappearing rebate, the price to get a Model 3 is now mainstream. If you want to add options that's on you, but that doesn't prevent somebody from buying a black base Model 3 if they want one.

 

[dreamingof3]

True the camry doesn't have 19 inch wheels but does have 17 standard attractive wheels. My point is Tesla assured a mass market affordable car and probably 200k people will cancel when they see the true price of the car. You can get a brand new camry SE right now for 20,298 after incentives for a nicely equipped SE model not the LE.

 

[chronopc]

Didn't we already cover this topic on this forum?

 

[nikeykid]

OP is right, how can the model 3 even begin to compete with the great toyota camry when big brother S hasn't achieved the right yet.


I took a Tesla Model S and a Toyota Camry on the same road trip — and the ride was surprisingly similar

 

[jelloslug]

The market for this car are people looking at the 3 Series BMW and like models, not a Camry or an Accord.

 

[dreamingof3]

OP is right, how can the model 3 even begin to compete with the great toyota camry when big brother S hasn't achieved the right yet.


I took a Tesla Model S and a Toyota Camry on the same road trip — and the ride was surprisingly similar

Why knock the Camry it's sold over 10 million.

 

[techmaven]

Musk never said he was making a Camry competitor. Instead, he's making a mass market car, meaning the production volumes for the Model 3 will be in the hundreds of thousands. By necessity, that means moving the base pricing point down significantly into the $30 to $40k range. Factor in TCO and incentives and the cost is quite competitive.

The biggest revolution is moving the price competitiveness against head to head ICE vehicles from $70,000 to $35,000. Without incentives, the Model 3 competes well against other entry luxury sedans. That's never happened in modern history for a BEV to be price competitive against the same price ICE vehicles at that price point. The Bolt, for instance, is still about $10k higher in base price than its ICE competition.

The issue now is that some people put their own ideas on what mass market vehicle means... and for everything that is upset the price is $35k instead of $30k, there's more that are upset if it were $30k and not $25k, or if it were $25k, it wasn't $20k because clearly mass market really means $20k.

Going forward, automated driving, total cost of ownership and potentially longer lifespans might mean that there is actually less demand for substantially cheaper vehicles. Tesla would have to grow about 4x the size it is after the growth of Model 3 to 10k/week in order to make the next jump to lower the price substantially. Maybe in 2019...

 

[nikeykid]

Didn't we already cover this topic on this forum?

every conceivable (and inconceivable) topic has already been raised over and over again many times on this sub-forum. can't wait to see deliveries to non-employees and remove any doubt how vastly superior this car will be over comparably priced ICE.

 

[Foxhound199]

Here's a scenario that would work for me: I could buy the base, black car. Black's a perfectly nice color and the 18" wheels look good w/o the caps. I reserved in store, so I'm definitely getting the full federal credit. The upgrades are nice, but I think the base package and range is still very nicely equipped and wouldn't hesitate to get it. I live in WA, so I would also get ~$3200 in tax savings vs buying a similarly priced car. That's a total of $10,700 in savings. But we're not done. My work has free EV charging, which I plan to use almost exclusively. Over the last 10 years, I estimate I have spent $13,000 in gasoline. So now if we're comparing to gas cars I could buy, we've got $35k-$23.7k=$11,300. That's the price I would expect to pay for a car to have a comparable cost of ownership over a decade as the Model 3.

 

[dreamingof3]

The market for this car are people looking at the 3 Series BMW and like models, not a Camry or an Accord.

I don't agree - Tesla is trying to take market share from people who normally wouldn't have purchased an electric car by making it "affordable". People want the cool tesla factor and for right now think they can get that for 35k

 

[chronopc]

every conceivable (and inconceivable) topic has already been raised over and over again many times on this sub-forum. can't wait to see deliveries to non-employees and remove any doubt how vastly superior this car will be over comparably priced ICE.

The Camry is still better though, right?

 

[Khanhvngo]

Lets look at safety from another angle.

Accident in a Camry= Mostly major injury/death

Accident in 3= Walking away

playing a little more for my life I think is worth !!

case in point!!

By the end of the day and you had an accident and walk away safe vs death, the extra 3k, 5k, or 7k is a chump changes for your life!!

 

[WhiskySTL]

True the camry doesn't have 19 inch wheels but does have 17 standard attractive wheels. My point is Tesla assured a mass market affordable car and probably 200k people will cancel when they see the true price of the car. You can get a brand new camry SE right now for 20,298 after incentives for a nicely equipped SE model not the LE.

And out of curiosity... How quickly does this $20k Camry do 0-60?