It has been the vision of Elon Musk to be able to build an affordable electric vehicle. When Tesla made the Model 3 available for pre-ordering, it came out with a price of $35,000 before incentives.
Factoring in the application of substantial federal and state rebates, it could go down to as low and affordable as $25,000. That shall put the Tesla Model 3 squarely in the mid-range category, and still cheaper than the average cost of a new car in the US which is pegged at $31,000.
Vehicles above $35,000 are typically niche products like SUVs and trucks. Americans are also far more willing to consider a battery-powered electric vehicle as the cost drops over time on the condition that the vehicle meets range requirements.
The slight decrease in US sales of electric vehicles was driven by the dramatically falling price of oil in the world market. The slump actually began back in 2014 and it has continued since then.
Motoring analysts believe that such kinds of short-term spikes or dips should not drive purchasing as much as they do, but people tend to think in the short term and often buy vehicles that they would drive based on the prevailing market price of oil.