The Tesla Model 3 will be the company's first electric car geared toward the mass market, and according to Bloomberg, the $35,000 price tag may be shaved down to $25,000 after tax credits.
Tesla spokesperson Khobi Brooklyn confirmed that the company is sticking to the original pricing plan, saying that the $35,000 cost is before any tax subsidy.
"We can confirm it's $35,000 before incentives. We haven't changed our minds," she tells Bloomberg.
The business and market news website estimates that the tax incentives in certain states can downsize the price by $10,000. For other areas, there is a $7,500 federal income tax credit that everyone in the country can avail when purchasing a Model 3.
However, it's not without a hitch. As Bloomberg points out, the U.S. federal tax for electric vehicles won't last forever, saying that the value will go down to zero in about a year and a half. The tax credit will apparently apply to only the first 200,000 electric car sales of each new maker that penetrates the market.
The publication continues to explain that if the Model 3 doesn't start to ship out at the end of 2018, then the incentives would've dried up before a customer of the "mass market" even gets a chance to purchase the electric car at a lower price. In other words, the vehicle in question will be sold at the original price of $35,000.
On top of that, there's a possibility that the first Model 3 vehicles will launch as the Signature Series models that are pegged with double the price, and they might "soak up the incentives for 2019."
To put things into perspective, the 200-range Chevy Bolt has a price point of $37,500, so the Model 3 is a bit on the affordable side in comparison. Needless to say, it'll turn out about $30,000 after federal tax credits.
The thing is that General Motors potentially has the opportunity to beat Tesla to the punch in rolling out an affordable electric car, as the carmaker has plans to ship out the Chevy Bolt sometime before 2016 ends. That means that there's a pretty good chance that the electric car will be available with the incentives.
Bloomberg also mentions that there's only one car that can be compared to the Model 3 in terms of size with 100,000 annual sales and a $35,000 price tag, and that is the BMW 3 Series.
Moving forward, Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that the EV is capable of going over 200 miles on a single charge and that it sports a smaller form factor than previous models, noting that it'll have fewer features compared to the Model S or X.
"It's a smaller version of the Model S. It won't have quite as many bells and whistles, but it will be at a much lower price point," he told attendees of the 2016 StartmeupHK Festival in Hong Kong.
It's also worth mentioning that Anton Wahlman of Seeking Alpha made an interesting proposition about the total cost, saying that the $35,000 price could shrink down to $9,500 in California thanks to the aforementioned federal tax credit, rebate, assumed savings on gasoline and the white sticker available in the state.
The Tesla Model 3 is expected to be unveiled in March, and it will be available for preorder by then. The electric car is also believed to go into production in 2017.
