One of Tesla’s biggest drawbacks has always been the starting price of its electric vehicles compared to gas models. Its cheapest car currently sells for $42,490 before subsidies, and the average Kelley Blue Book starting price for its 2024 models is just over $63,000.
Tesla wrote in its third-quarter disclosure report that it is “preparing” to introduce new vehicles with “more affordable models.” The EV maker’s cost of goods sold per vehicle has also fallen to an “all-time low” of $35,1000.
“Plans for new vehicles, including more affordable models, to begin production in the first half of 2025 remain on track,” the report reads. “These vehicles will use aspects of the next-generation platform as well as aspects of our existing platform and will be able to be produced on the same manufacturing lines as our existing vehicle line-up.”
Tesla has also said it plans to “begin launching” its cheaper EV models “in the first half of 2025.” That terminology is still pretty loose, so there’s no guarantee the new model will ship that year.
The second surprise in Tesla’s report came from the numbers. It turns out that despite setbacks like the Cybertruck’s fifth recall and a federal investigation into its EV’s full self-driving feature, Tesla had a pretty strong third quarter. The carmaker’s net income rose 8 percent to $2.51 billion and sales grew 2 percent year-over-year. The news also ended its four-quarter streak of missing earnings targets.
With CES behind us and Samsung’s Unpacked ahead, the Engadget crew had a quick chance to catch its collective breath this week. But we still took a look at the deal machine to see which tech sales are worth your dollar.
Right now, we’re seeing some great Apple deals — one on the latest iPad mini and another on the new 15-inch MacBook Air — as well as a first-time discount on the Kindle Colorsoft ereader.
There are some discounts on Bluetooth trackers, which will help you keep track of your keys and bag. And Best Buy is still running a promotion to give away three free months of Apple TV+, so you can start watching the just-released season two of Severance. Here are this week’s best tech deals, which you can still get today.
Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition (32 GB) $230 ($50 off with Prime): If you’re a Prime member, you can save $50 on the recently released Colorsoft Kindle, also known as the first Kindle with color. This is the first discount since this model debuted.
We encountered a “yellow band” problem with our review unit, but we later received an updated reader for which Amazon made “appropriate adjustments” to resolve the issue. The software and display adjustments the company implemented worked – and we actually liked the overall effect better. Check out our review for the full story.