He Audi E-Tron GT has finally arrived and will begin a friendly rivalry with his distant establishment partner, the Porsche Taycan. But I can’t help but think that the real winner of all this is not the Volkswagen group. Is it like that Tesla.
And it’s less about the Model S suddenly becoming a less formidable competitor, even against vehicle manufacturers that have the task of building incredibly fast cars, and more about Tesla’s relative affordability. Model 3.
Because the model is the EV that most American drivers can potentially buy.
We are full charge in advance in electric vehicles, but so far the electric vehicles that make waves are EV halo vehicles like the Taycan, the E-Tron and until recently, the S model. These three cars start at about $ 80,000 and easily reach six figures.
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Meanwhile, the entry-level Model 3 starts at about $ 38,000, less than the average new vehicle transaction price for 2020, according to KBB. That still means a lot of money, but not so much that it takes the BEV out of the race for many buyers. It doesn’t matter that there are electric vehicles with a similar price, such as the Bolt, Leaf or Mach-E. These do not have the kind of follow-up or exposure to the mass market that Teslas have, for better or for worse.
Tesla’s ubiquity isn’t always good; Sometimes the vehicle manufacturer and its eccentric leader can be the butt of the joke, but drivers know about Tesla. His Model 3 just didn’t get the promise of the affordable vehicle, but Tesla is in a position to develop this car so that its quality can be updated with its price.
Tesla might even be in a position to deliver one really affordable EV that would start at $ 25,000, maybe. Not many other companies can say that. It’s possible that big carmakers could bring the fight to Tesla through federal tax credits; let’s see how things tighten in the near future on this front.
But for now Tesla is in an enviable place as an electric car manufacturer. Meanwhile, Porsche and Audi are turning their backs on being manufacturers of what can also be electric super cars.