The Audi E-Tron GT is finally here, and it will start a friendly rivalry with its distant stablemate, the Porsche Taycan. But I can’t stop thinking that the real winner in all of this isn’t Volkswagen Group. Her Tesla.
And it’s less about the Model S suddenly becoming a less formidable competitor – even against automakers whose job it is to build incredibly fast cars – and more about Tesla’s relative affordability. Model 3.
Because the model is the EV most American drivers could possibly buy.
We are fully charged ahead on EVs, but so far the EVs that are making waves are halo EVs like the Taycan, E-Tron and until recently the Model S. Those three cars start at around $ 80,000 and go into six digits easily.
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Meanwhile, the entry-level Model 3 starts at around $ 38,000, less than the average transaction price for new cars in 2020, KBB said. That’s still quite a bit of money, but not so much that it takes the BEV out of the running for many buyers. It doesn’t matter that there are similarly priced EVs like the Bolt, Leaf or Mach-E. They don’t have the kind of imitation or mass-market exposure that Teslas have, for better or for worse.
Tesla’s ubiquity isn’t always good; The automaker and its, um, eccentric leader can sometimes be the butt of the joke, but joke or not, drivers know Tesla. His Model 3 didn’t quite deliver the promise of the affordable EV, but Tesla is able to develop that car in such a way that the quality can overtake the price.
Tesla may even be able to create one really affordable EV that would start at $ 25,000, maybe. Not many other companies can say that. It’s possible that the big auto makers could take the fight to Tesla with federal tax cuts – let’s see how things on that front are shaking up in the near future.
But for now, Tesla is in an enviable place as an electric car maker. Meanwhile, Porsche and Audi are patting themselves on the back for being creators of what might as well be electric super cars.