Tesla delivered the first of its new and much less expensive battery-powered cars last week, betting that it can move beyond producing a relative few luxury vehicles and become a mass producer.
Tesla founder Elon Musk drove a Model 3, whose prices begin at $35,000, onto a stage at Tesla’s Fremont factory to kick off sales, and declared, “The whole point of this company was to make a really great, affordable electric car. And we finally have it.”
California has a big stake in whether Musk’s “moment of truth,” as the New York Times terms it, pays off.
California’s politicians and civic leaders have portrayed Tesla as the crown jewel of the state’s efforts to build a new economy for the 21st century while dramatically reducing carbon emissions. Gov. Jerry Brown has set a goal of having 1.5 million battery- or hydrogen-powered “zero emission vehicles” or ZEVs on California roads by 2025, roughly five times their current numbers, with ZEVs being 15 percent of all new car sales by then.
Toward that end, the state has been an indirect investor in Tesla through corporate tax breaks and direct subsidies to purchasers of its cars. Tesla has also benefited handsomely by selling credits to other automakers in lieu of their meeting state quotas for making and selling ZEVs.
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