How Much Does a Tesla Cost? The Price and Advantages of Each Model

July 26, 2023

By Lennon Cihak

Tesla offers a variety of models and prices, ranging from the Model 3, all the way up to the Model X Plaid.

Tesla

With gas prices soaring and EVs becoming more affordable than ever, it could not be a better time to purchase an electric vehicle. Tesla is leading that charge in terms of performance, technology and affordability.

The Austin, Texas-based automotive company has built a strong product that sells itself and recently became the most popular car worldwide. Tesla currently produces five different models, including the Model S, Model 3, Model X, the Model Y, and the Tesla Semi. The Tesla Cybertruck will join the mix later this year, and the new Roadster is expected to begin production next year.

The cost of a Tesla will range from $40,000 to almost $140,000, depending on the model and options. But before we get into the actual upfront and ownership costs, it’s helpful to understand Tesla’s mission: Accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

Tesla’s Mission and Master Plan

On August 2nd, 2006, co-founder and CEO Elon Musk published a blog post outlining Tesla’s master plan. It was simple:

Build a sports car (Tesla’s first-gen Roadster)
Use that money to build an affordable car (Model S, and later Model X)
Use that money to build an even more affordable car (Model 3 and Model Y)
While doing the above, also provide zero emission electric power generation options (Solar Roof, Solar Panels, Supercharging, Powerwall, Megapacks)

Tesla is now working toward their Master Plan Part 3.

What is The Cheapest Tesla Model?

The price for a Tesla ranges greatly depending on the model and upgrades you add. At the time of this article’s publishing, the Model 3, which comes in at $40,240 (before taxes and incentives) is the most affordable.

In June 2023, Tesla announced that all Model 3 variants in the United States are eligible for the $7,500 tax credit. This was due to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which expanded certain EVs to receive a federal tax credit of up to $7,500.

In addition to Federal tax incentives, many states offer additional incentives to EV owners.

Model 3

The Tesla Model 3

Tesla

The Tesla Model 3, introduced in 2017, revolutionized the electric vehicle market by making cutting-edge technology and sustainable transportation more accessible to the masses. As Tesla's entry-level sedan, the Model 3 combines sleek design with impressive performance and an exceptional range of up to 333 miles, making it a compelling choice for those who prefer a smaller, nimble vehicle.

With seating for five passengers and a spacious interior, the Model 3 provides comfort without compromising on style. Its minimalist yet futuristic interior features Tesla's signature touchscreen infotainment system and a host of advanced driver-assistance features, including Autopilot. The Model 3's affordability, eco-friendly credentials, and thrilling driving experience propelled it to become one of the best-selling electric cars worldwide, showcasing Tesla's commitment to accelerating the global shift towards sustainable and emission-free transportation.

Model 3 Standard Range

Price: $40,240
Range: 272 miles
Weight: 3,862 lbs
Drivetrain: Rear-Wheel Drive
0-60mph Speed: 5.8 sec
Top Speed: 140 mph

Model 3 AWD (All-Wheel Drive)

Price: $47,240
Range: 315 - 333 miles
Weight: 4,034 lbs
Drivetrain: Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive
0-60mph Speed: 4.2 sec
Top Speed: 145 mph

Model 3 Performance

Price: $51,640
Range: 315 miles
Weight: 4,048 lbs
Drivetrain: Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive
0-60mph Speed: 3.1 sec
Top Speed: 162 mph

The Model 3 Performance also comes with the Performance Upgrade package:

Increased top speed from 135mph to 155mph
21’’ Überturbine Wheels
Performance Brakes
Lowered suspension
Aluminum alloy pedals
Carbon fiber spoiler

Model Y

The Tesla Model Y

Tesla

The Tesla Model Y, introduced in 2020, represents a compelling addition to Tesla's lineup of electric vehicles. As a compact all-electric SUV, the Model Y combines the best of the Model 3 sedan's platform with the versatility and practicality of their higher-end Model X. Offering seating for up to seven passengers and a spacious cargo area, the Model Y is designed to accommodate families and adventure-seekers alike.

With its sleek and modern design, the Model Y exudes an air of sophistication while boasting impressive performance capabilities, including rapid acceleration and an impressive electric driving range of up to 330 miles on a single charge. Tesla's commitment to cutting-edge technology is evident in the Model Y, with features such as the expansive touchscreen infotainment system and advanced driver-assistance features like Autopilot. As an integral part of Tesla's mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy, the Model Y represents a compelling choice for those seeking a versatile, affordable, and high-performance electric SUV.

Model Y Standard Range

Price: $47,740
Range: 279 miles
Drivetrain: Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive
0-60mph Speed: 5 sec
Top Speed: 135 mph

Model Y Long Range

Price: $50,490
Range: 330 miles
Weight: 4,386 lbs
Drivetrain: Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive
0-60mph Speed: 4.8 sec
Top Speed: 135 mph

Model Y Performance

Price: $54,490
Range: 303 miles
Weight: 4,439 lbs
Drivetrain: Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive
0-60mph Speed: 3.5 sec
Top Speed: 155 mph

Who is Model Y For?

Tesla's Model Y is designed for families, practicality seekers, urban dwellers, commuters, crossover enthusiasts, tech enthusiasts, environmentally conscious consumers, and those seeking a blend of luxury and performance. It offers the practicality of a compact SUV, advanced technology, electric drivetrain benefits, and a versatile driving experience to meet the diverse needs and preferences of a wide range of consumers.

Model Y is one of the best-selling vehicles in the world. The price comes in a couple thousand more than Model 3. Model Y comes with more front and rear headroom, legroom, an optional third row, and 34.3-cubic-foot in cargo space.

What is The Most Expensive Tesla Model?

The most expensive vehicle Tesla makes is its 2.7-ton SUV, the Model X. Model X Plaid with Ultra Red paint and 22-inch turbine wheels, among other additions and customizations, drifts in at more than triple the price of the base Model 3 at $133,990. The Model X being one of Tesla’s most luxurious vehicles comes with high-end features, including ventilated seats, more cargo room, a towing package for up to 5,000 pounds, additional seating options, 325+ miles of range, and mind-altering performance with a 0-60 mph speed in 2.5 seconds.

Model X

The Tesla Model X

Tesla

The Tesla Model X, introduced in 2015, represents a groundbreaking milestone in electric vehicles. The Model X boasts a falcon-wing door system, providing easy access to its spacious interior, which can comfortably seat up to seven passengers. Powered by Tesla’s state-of-the-art Autopilot system, panoramic windshield, and industry-leading infotainment system further elevate the driving experience. With a price range typically starting from $98,000 to $134,000, the Tesla Model X caters to discerning consumers seeking both sustainability and luxury on their commutes.

Model X (base)

Price: $98,490
Range: 348 miles
Weight: 5,185 lbs
Drivetrain: Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive
0-60mph Speed: 3.8 sec
Top Speed: 149 mph

Model X Plaid

Price: $108,490
Range: 333 miles
Weight: 5,390 lbs
Drivetrain: Tri-Motor All-Wheel Drive
0-60mph Speed: 2.5 sec
Top Speed: 149 mph

Who is Model X For?

Tesla's Model X caters to a diverse range of consumers, including families, adventure enthusiasts, tech enthusiasts, luxury seekers, and environmentally conscious individuals. It addresses their specific needs by providing ample space, impressive performance, advanced technology, luxurious features, and a sustainable driving experience.

The Model X comes with additional luxurious features when compared to Tesla's other models. These include cooled seats, air suspension, falcon-wing doors, auto-opening and closing doors, better noise isolation, a premium noise-canceling sound system, premium materials, an instrument cluster, and a rear screen.

Model S

The Tesla Model S

Tesla

The Tesla Model S, launched in 2012, remains a groundbreaking electric sedan that continues to set the standard for innovation and luxury in the automotive industry. As Tesla's flagship vehicle, the Model S combines elegant design, exceptional performance, and advanced technology.

With its sleek and aerodynamic exterior, the Model S not only stands out on the road but also achieves remarkable electric range, thanks to its cutting-edge battery technology. Inside the cabin, passengers experience a refined and spacious environment, complemented by Tesla's signature 17-inch touchscreen infotainment system and an array of premium features. The Model S accelerates with astonishing speed, demonstrating the capabilities of electric propulsion while maintaining a smooth and silent ride.

Tesla has continuously updated the Model S with over-the-air software updates, improving performance and adding new features, further solidifying its reputation as an industry-leading electric vehicle. As one of the pioneering electric cars, the Model S exemplifies Tesla's dedication to sustainable transportation, leaving an indelible mark on the automotive landscape.

Model S (base)

Price: $88,490
Range: 405 miles
Weight: 4,561 lbs
Drivetrain: Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive
0-60mph Speed: 3.1 sec
Top Speed: 149 mph

Model S Plaid

Price: $108,490
Range: 396 miles
Weight: 4,766 lbs
Drivetrain: Tri-Motor All-Wheel Drive
0-60mph Speed: 1.99 sec
Top Speed: 200 mph

Who is Model S For?

Tesla's Model S is designed for electric vehicle enthusiasts, performance seekers, luxury car buyers, technology enthusiasts, eco-conscious consumers, and business executives. It offers a seamless blend of technology, performance, luxury, and sustainability, making it an appealing choice for those who seek an extraordinary electric driving experience.

The Model S also comes with more luxurious features when compared to the Model 3 and Model Y. These include cooled seats, air suspension, auto-appearing door handles, better noise isolation, a noise-canceling premium sound system, premium materials, an instrument cluster, and a rear screen.

It’s worth noting that Tesla changes its pricing frequently. All the above models were priced with the free paint, standard interior and wheels, and basic Autopilot.

Cybertruck

The Tesla Cybertruck

MatthewDR/Twitter

Tesla’s Cybertruck, unveiled in 2019, is a testament to the company’s push toward automotive and electric vehicle innovation. It’s promised to be loaded with newer tech and nearly impenetrable because of its ultra-hard 30x cold-rolled stainless steel exterior. In addition to its advanced technology, Cybertruck will include a large shatterproof windshield and ultra-durable rear bed.

Its expected to be available in three variants, ranging from a single-motor RWD version, all the way up to a tri-motor AWD verison. The estimated EPA range is 250-500 miles with a 0-60 mph time of 2.9 - 6.5 seconds.

Tesla will begin Cybertruck deliveries this year, with volume production being achieved in 2024.

Semi

The Tesla Semi

Tesla

Originally unveiled in November 2017, Tesla Semi is designed to innovate the semi-truck market. Designed to have more than three times the power of a standard diesel truck, a range of up to 500 miles, and a 1,000 horsepower motor the size of a football, Tesla Semi provides true innovation for long-haul transportation.

The first bunch of Semis was delivered to PepsiCo in late 2022 at a delivery event, where its nickname, “The Beats,” was presented.

“[It has] three times the power than any diesel truck on the road right now,” Dan Priestley, Senior Manager of Tesla’s Semi Engineering, said at the time. “So you’ve got all the power you need to get the job done, but the other reason that it’s a beast is because it is efficient. You can go 500 miles on a single charge on one of these things. It’s the mix of those two—this is a game-changer. What’s awesome is both of those are enabled by our 1000-volt powertrain. This is the first vehicle we are with that.”

First-Gen Roadster

Tesla’s original Roadster began production in 2008. It was a big milestone for the company because it was their first production vehicle. Prior to the Roadster, Tesla only produced a prototype of the vehicle to generate interest and secure funding.

The Roadster was based on the Lotus Elise, a lightweight, two-seat sports car. Tesla worked with Lotus to develop the Roadster in order to tap into Lotus’ expertise in vehicle manufacturing. The final product borrowed the Elise’s chassis, but the vehicle's custom drivetrain, battery system, and body were entirely unique.

When it was originally released, it had a base price of $98,950 with later versions of the vehicle reaching a sticker price of $120,000.

Next-Gen Roadster

The New Tesla Roadster

Tesla

Tesla’s Next-Gen Roadster will be a marvel of automotive engineering, shattering barriers and pushing the laws of physics. Information about the Next-Gen Roadster has been sparse since its unveiling in 2017 alongside Semi, but CEO Elon Musk has stated the production of the Next-Gen Roadster will begin in 2024.

Next-Gen Roadster Specs

According to Tesla’s website, the Roadster will be capable of going 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds, a 620-mile range, and a top speed of more than 250 mph. Similar to the Cybertruck, it’ll be loaded with Tesla’s state-of-the-art safety features, all-wheel drive, and designed for unrivaled performance and aero efficiency.

Furthermore, in classic Tesla and Elon Musk fashion, the Roadster will have an optional SpaceX Package, which would increase the vehicle’s performance even further. Musk confirmed that with this package, 0-60 mph could be achieved in mere 1.1 seconds.

What’s Coming in Tesla FSD V13

November 5, 2024

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

As part of an update to its AI roadmap, Tesla has also announced the features that will be in FSD v13. Tesla provided many details about what we can expect, and there’s a lot of info to break down.

Tesla’s VP of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, also revealed that FSD v13 is expected to make FSD Unsupervised feature complete. That doesn’t mean that autonomy will be ready, as each feature will still need to work at safety levels higher than a human, but it means every key feature of autonomous vehicles will be present in FSD v13.

Let’s examine the v13 feature list Tesla and Tesla employees have recently provided to see exactly what’s coming.

Higher Resolution Video & Native AI4

FSD v12 has been trained using Tesla’s HW3 cameras and downsampling the AI4 cameras to match. For the first time, Tesla will use AI4's native camera resolution to get the clearest image possible. Not only will Tesla increase the resolution, but they’re also increasing the capture rate to 36 FPS (frames per second). This should result in extreme smoothness and the ability of the vehicle to detect objects earlier and more precisely. It’ll be a big boon for FSD, but it’ll come at the price of processing all of this additional information.

The HW3 cameras have a resolution of about 1.2 megapixels, while the AI4 cameras have a resolution of 5.44 megapixels. That’s a 4.5x improvement in raw resolution - which is a lot of new data for the inference computer and AI models to deal with.

Yun-Ti Tsai, Senior Staff Engineer at Tesla AI, mentioned on X that the total data bandwidth is 1.3 gigapixels per second, running at 36 hertz, with nearly 0 latency between capture and inference. This is one of the baseline features for getting v13 off the ground, and through this feature update, we can expect better vehicle performance, sign reading, and lots of little upgrades.

Bigger Models, Bigger Context, Better Data

The next big item is that Tesla will increase the size of the FSD model by three times and the overall context length by the same amount. What that means, in simple terms, is that FSD will have a lot more information to draw upon—both at the moment (the context length) and from background knowledge and training (model size).

In layman’s terms, Tesla has made the FSD brain bigger and increased the amount of information it can remember. This means that FSD will have a lot more data to work with when making decisions, both from what's happening right now and from what it has learned in the past.

Beyond that, Tesla has also massively expanded the data scaling and training compute to match. Tesla is increasing the amount of training data by 4.2 times and increasing their training commute power by 5x.

Video of the inside of Cortex today, the giant new AI training supercluster being built at Tesla HQ in Austin to solve real-world AI pic.twitter.com/DwJVUWUrb5
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2024

Audio Intake

Tesla’s FSD has famously only relied upon visual data—equivalent to what humans can access. LiDAR hasn’t been on Tesla’s books except for model validation, and radar, while used in the past, was mostly phased out.

Now, Tesla AI will integrate audio intake into FSD’s models, with a focus on better handling of emergency vehicles. FSD will soon be able to react to emergency vehicles, even before it sees them. This is big news and is in line with how Tesla has been approaching FSD—through a very human-like lens.

We’re excited to see how these updates pan out - but there was one more thing. Ashok Elluswamy, VP of AI at Tesla, confirmed on X that they’ll add the ability for FSD to honk the horn.

Other Improvements

The other improvements, while major, can be summarized pretty simply. Tesla is focusing on improving smoothness and safety in various ways. The v13 AI will be trained to predict and adapt for collision avoidance, navigation, and better following traffic controls. This will make it more predictable for users and other drivers and improve general safety.

Beyond that, Tesla is also working on a better representation of the map and navigation inputs versus what FSD actually does. In complex situations, FSD may choose to take a different turn or exit, even if navigation is telling it to go the other way. This future update will likely close this gap and ensure that your route and FSD’s path planner match closely.

Of course, Tesla will also be working on adding Unpark, Reverse, and Park capabilities, as well as support for destination options, including parking in a spot, driveway, or garage or just pulling over at a specific point, like at an entrance.

Finally, they’re also working on adding improved camera self-cleaning and better handling of camera occlusion. Currently, FSD can and will clean the front cameras if they are obscured with debris, but only if they are fully blocked. Partial blockages do not trigger the wipers. Additionally, when the B-Pillar cameras are blinded by sunlight, FSD tends to have difficulties staying centered in the lane. This specific update is expected to address both of these issues.

FSD V13 Release Date

Tesla announced that FSD v13 will be released to employees this week, however, it’ll take various iterations before it’s released to the public. Tesla mentioned that they expect FSD v13 to be released to customers around v13.3, but surprisingly, they state that this will happen around the Thanksgiving timeframe — just a few weeks away.

Tesla is known for delays with its FSD releases, so we’re cautious about the late November timeline. However, the real takeaway is that FSD v13 is expected to offer a substantial leap in capability over the next few months—even if it’s exclusive to AI4.

Tesla App Adds Visual Interface for Selecting Areas That Need Attention

November 5, 2024

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

As part of a recent update to the Tesla App, Tesla has added some slick new user interfaces to the Service and Roadside sections of the app. These new interfaces allow you to easily select the areas that are damaged or need attention.

These new screens in the service and roadside menus have been available in North America since at least late August, but appear to be rolling out to more users.

For now, it also appears to be restricted to the Model 3 (both original and 2024 Highland refresh), as well as the Model Y. The Model S and X, both redesigned or legacy - do not appear to have this new service menu just yet. The Cybertruck is the same - no unique service menu for it just yet, either.

Exterior Select Screen

In order to see this new screen, you can open up your Model 3 or Model Y’s service menu in the Tesla app. From there, you can select “Exterior” as the area of concern. Once there, you’ll be greeted with a short tutorial that will show you through the new interface.

Instead of having to type your areas of concern which could be ambiguous, this new interface makes it easy to select the affected areas. Just swipe left/right to view the car from different angles and tap the area that needs service.

Areas you select become highlighted in blue, and once you’re done selecting all of them, you can provide notes to each particular area. You can even select areas under the vehicle, like the front aero shield or center skid plate.

While most glass is selectable here, the windshield and top glass areas are a separate option in the service menu under Collision and Glass > Glass & Windows. However, windshield wipers in the second last visualization - Top.

Tire Select Screen

The Tire/Wheel Select Menu

Not a Tesla App

Similar to the Exterior and Glass screens, you can open the service menu and then select Tires & Wheels as your area of concern. You’ll have two sets of options here.

You can either go to Wheels > Wheel Damage; or Tires > Replacement Tires. Here, you’ll be able to identify specific wheels or tires for service as required.

The app's roadside section offers a similar tire view, which lets you select which tire is flat.

Thanks to its app and mobile service, Tesla has been providing one of the best service experiences in the industry. While they still have work to do regarding part availability and reasonable wait times, their technology and simplicity continue to impress. We’re excited to see what improvements they’ll make next.