--- title: "Elon Musk Slashes Tesla Model 3 Price to Long-Awaited $35,000" description: "## Not Quite $35,000" date: "2019-02-06" modified: "2019-02-06" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-tesla-model-3-35000" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Tesla" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "Model 3" - "tesla" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Slashes Tesla Model 3 Price to Long-Awaited $35,000 ![Elon Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla will be selling a $35,000 Model 3, but after tax incentives and gas savings.]() *\Image: Tesla\* ## Not Quite $35,000 Tesla finally managed to push down the price of its Model 3 electric sedan down to $35,000 — if you factor in roughly $8,000 of tax credits and fuel savings, according to CEO Elon Musk. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1093042991994830849?ref\_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1093042991994830849&ref\_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.engadget.com%2F2019%2F02%2F06%2Ftesla-model-3-price-35k%2F Back in October, Musk admitted that $35,000 was a stretch goal. "We need more work, there is more work to do before in order to make a $35,000 car and have it be positive gross margin," he said during a conference call, as [quoted by *Electrek*](). "We’re probably less than six months from that. That’s our mission." Less than four months later, Tesla has reached that goal. Well, sort of. The new entry-level model base price is $42,900 before incentives — a price drop of about $1,100 — but if you count them, according to Musk, the car has reached its long-awaited price point. ## Cutting Costs What allowed Tesla to cut the price? [According to *Electrek*](), it was the end of Tesla's rewards program. Tesla nixed its customer referral program [back in January](). [Musk tweeted]() that it was simply "adding too much cost to the cars." As for bringing the actual base price down to $35,000, you'll have to keep waiting. "We're doing everything we can to get there," Musk [followed up on Twitter](). "It's a super hard grind." ## Gas Savings and Incentives In October, the U.S. government's $7,500 tax incentive to chose an electric car was [reduced by half](). On July 1, that incentive will be halved again to $1,875. A previous price drop back in January made that drop a little less steep, when Tesla cut car prices by [another $2,000](). Musk might be lumping in the two price drops into his ["$8k" figure](). Long story short: the $35,000 Tesla hasn't materialized just yet, but Tesla is hard at work trying to push that price down even further, especially now that the Model 3 is on a quest to [take over the world market](). **READ MORE:** [Tesla reduces Model 3 price, now starts at $42,900 before incentives]() \[*Electrek*\] ***More on Tesla:** [Elon Musk: Tesla Is Dropping Its Customer Referral Program]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()