[TexanFeller]

Pricing from manufacturer websites just now. Base Camry is $26,420, base Model 3 is $38,990(apparently not tax rebate eligible) and the base Model Y is $36,490(after $7500 tax rebate).

Best case comparison there is a $10,070 difference between the Camry and a Tesla.

$10k is a LOT of money to average Americans living paycheck to paycheck. In percentages that's 38% more than the Camry! That's before considering larger loan balances to pay 7% on, since the poor average American won't have that kind of cash. This is almost on par with saying that Whole Foods is the same price as H-E-B or Kroger!

[insane_dreamer]

The 3 was eligible for the 7500 tax rebate until a few days ago (Dec 31) so only a few thousand more than the Camry which is easily made up in gas savings (if charging at home) and lower maintenance cost. Over 3 years comes to about the same. However, once you compare feature parity, the 3 was (with rebate) cheaper than the Camry because for the Camry you have to add on option packs to get the same safety features available in the 3 (like blind spot monitoring, backup camera warning, etc.; very important to us), not to mention other features like moonroof etc. You'd have to get the Camry XLE to start matching features (and even that doesn't have the moonroof) and the Hybrid version has a starting MSRP of $32970.

Obviously if your only concern is cost then yes, an ICE is the cheapest option, especially if you get a Corolla or Civic. But if you want more features, EVs are fairly competitive price wise esp once you factor in the gas savings over 3-5 years.

There are also cheaper EV models like the Leaf, Bolt.