Agreed, it is huge. Potential market at $36k vs $28k is quite a bit smaller. At least Tesla bundled in autopilot at zero extra cost.

It's not as good as originally promised, but still a pretty good deal in my opinion. Just depends how much people are willing to spend for good acceleration, avoiding trips to gas stations, and avoiding spending $1000-$1200 of gas per year. Of course electricity is not free either. My last fill up in California was $3.99 a gallon and I spent $51. I do that about 4-5 times a month.

> At least Tesla bundled in autopilot at zero extra cost.

For about 15 minutes, before they rolled that back.

Honestly that's the biggest red flag, to me - the chaotic mix of announcements, retractions, chops and changes to their pricing and marketing strategy. As an outsider it feels like the company has cool tech but lacks adult supervision.

Er, what? Go to https://www.tesla.com/model3, click on buy, next, next. You should see: "Autopilot Included". The car costs $39,500.

You have to call in to get the actual base model - they removed the option to order it from the website.

Yes, I ignored that one. The $39,500 model with autopilot is right on the website. It's not the promised $35k model, but it does include autopilot.

If something is "zero extra cost" I would expect the base model to have it.

Beyond that, what you looked at used to cost $37,500 with autopilot as an optional $3k addon. Now it always includes autopilot but costs $2k more. Again, not exactly "zero extra cost".