Tesla has cut the price of its Model 3 sedan again, bringing the cost of the cheapest variant down to $42,900 before account incentives and potential gas savings are taken into account. With those included, Tesla says, the price is $34,850.
Elon Musk’s automaker has already cut its prices once this year, back at the start of January, when it lopped off $2,000 to offset the impact of federal electric vehicle tax credits being cut.
Musk announced the new $1,100 cut in a late Tuesday tweet. It follows the company’s discontinuation last week of its customer referral program, which—as noted by Reuters—was costly due to benefits such as half a year of free supercharging for new customers.
Tesla has for a long time been trying to get the base price of a Model 3 down to $35,000 before incentives. When will that finally happen? Musk wasn’t naming dates when asked that question on Twitter.
We’re doing everything we can to get there. It’s a super hard grind.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2019
Apart from axing its customer referral scheme, Tesla also recently announced it was cutting 7% of its full-time workforce, as it attempts to achieve the economies of scale it needs to hit the magic $35,000 figure.
The federal tax credit for electric vehicles was $7,500 until October last year when it was halved. In the middle of this year, it will be halved again to just $1,875, meaning the likes of Tesla need to dampen their pricing if they want to avoid customers being scared off.