The move comes six weeks after Tesla announced plans to sell the $35,000 base version that was promised years earlier.
Musk’s announcement on February 28 that Tesla finally had a $35,000 Model 3 was a shock. Given its reliance on far costlier models and how much time had passed since Musk debuted the Model 3 design in Los Angeles in 2016, at which he touted that specific starting price, skepticism around Tesla’s ability to deliver a car that’s generally affordable to most consumers was considerable.
"Tesla was the one who decided that $35,000 was the magic number for an affordable EV. The company backed itself into a corner by making such a big deal about the Model 3 being that exact price without knowing exactly how they were going to do it,” Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds executive director of industry analysis, said in emailed comments.
Tesla also said it's offering a lease program for Model 3 today, starting at $504 a month for a Standard Plus car and with a $3,000 down payment, with annual mileage limited 10,000 miles, according to the company's website. Curiously, Tesla also said lease customers won't be able to buy their cars at the end of the lease. That's because"with full autonomy coming in the future via an over-the-air software update, we plan to use those vehicles in the Tesla ride-hailing network," the company said. Tesla's hosting anto show off the self-driving system it's developing and how it will be used.
Tesla shares weren't particularly impacted by the news, with the stock up a bit less than 1% to $270.63 at the start of Nasdaq trading on Friday.
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