The cheapest Tesla now costs $42,500, and it all started with a price of $35 thousand.

This year, Tesla was forced to abandon the transition to a new platform that would allow it to produce electric cars costing from $25,000, and instead announced its intentions to introduce elements of the new platform on the modernized Model 3 and Model Y. And the day before, Tesla was forced to withdraw from sale in the United States and the most affordable Model 3, which was offered at just under $40,000.

Image Source: Tesla

We are talking about the rear-wheel drive version of the Tesla Model 3 with a standard-capacity traction battery, which disappeared from the configurator on the company’s website without further explanation, and now the most affordable car of this brand in the United States is the rear-wheel drive Model 3 with a high-capacity traction battery, offered at a price starting from $42 500. Experts claim that the reason for the disappearance of a more affordable version of an electric car from sale in the United States was import duties on Chinese-made batteries, which made it unprofitable to import LFP batteries from China, namely, they were equipped with the most affordable version of the Tesla Model 3 in the United States. Other modifications are equipped with batteries from LG, Panasonic or Tesla’s own production; they are not subject to increased customs duties.

In fact, for many years, Elon Musk has persistently considered producing cheaper electric vehicles as one of Tesla’s main missions. Having set the goal of developing an electric car for $25,000, the company got involved in the development and production of 4680 battery cells with the participation of Panasonic specialists, delved into optimizing their chemical composition and began to finance the extraction of the necessary minerals. It was also one of the first to bet on changing the technology of manufacturing electric car body parts, introducing giant presses during series production to use injection molding technology. To produce affordable cars on the new platform, the construction of a new plant was announced in Mexico near the border with Texas, but so far all these efforts have been frustrated by the vicissitudes of the global economy and politics.

Tesla will introduce the new platform only in a few years, the technology for producing elements of size 4680 also remains to be improved, and the current US policy in the confrontation with China does not allow the company to take advantage of the benefits of globalization. As a result, the Tesla Model 3, which was priced at $35,000 at the time of its announcement in 2017, now costs at least $42,500. Yes, it can still be purchased with a subsidy, but this does not solve global problems, since only certain individuals can participate in the program US citizens.