The Model 3 is Tesla’s mass-market electric car. It was announced with a price tag of $35,000 before tax incentives, making it the cheapest vehicle ever made by the electric car company. While tens of thousands of Model 3 units have rolled off the production line, they haven’t been the $35,000 base model. That’s not expected to arrive before next year, partly because it currently costs more to build that car than what Tesla will be selling it for.
The cheapest Model 3 variant that customers can actually buy right now is the one with 260 miles of range. It starts at $46,000.
“It’s important to bear in mind that the cost of the car is made up of about 10,000 unique parts and processes. depending on how you count it, the current cost of a standard range Model 3 would be around $38,000,” Musk wrote in his email. He also highlighted the need for the smallest of efficiency improvements to meet this objective.
It’s also reported that Tesla has finally hit a production rate of 1,000 units of the Model 3 on a daily basis. It now needs to focus on retaining this rate on production aside from trying to get the costs down in order to turn a profit on the cheapest variant of the Model 3.
Tesla has denied requests for comment on the internal email and has also refused to confirm whether or not it’s authentic.