News
Tesla Model 3 can be acquired for less than $27,000 in Oregon: estimate
With Tesla’s recent round of price cuts for its entire lineup of premium all-electric vehicles, cars like the Model 3 sedan have become more affordable to mainstream car buyers. At $43,490 before incentives, the Model 3 RWD is a bang-for-the-buck all-electric car with ample range, power, and a suite of impressive active and passive safety features.
But for residents in the US state of Oregon, the Model 3 RWD can be acquired for an even lower price. With the state’s incentives, the base Model 3 could be acquired for as low as $26,990-$28,390. That’s almost Toyota Corolla territory. After all, a well-equipped 2023 Toyota Corolla XSE could hike up the price of the humble Japanese sedan to about $26,500.
Electric vehicle buyers from Oregon are able to stack incentives so that they can pay a lower price for their selected EVs. Among these incentives is the $7,500 federal tax credit as well as an additional $7,500 incentive through the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s Oregon Clean Vehicle and Charge Ahead Rebate programs.
Local Oregon residents could also get a rebate of up to $2,500 for the purchase or lease of a new electric car, and low and moderate income residents are offered an additional $5,000 incentive on qualified new or used electric cars, as noted in a report from The Street. Qualified electric cars become eligible for the incentive provided that its price does not exceed $50,000, which the Model 3 RWD meets.
Other local incentives, such as utility rebates, could also be utilized by EV buyers. These incentives could range between $100 and $1,500. With these incentives in mind, the publication calculated the discounted prices of several popular electric vehicles in Oregon. Needless to say, they are very compelling.
The Model 3 RWD, for example, has a purchase price of $43,490. With a Federal Tax Credit of $7,500; the Oregon Clean Vehicle Rebate of $2,500; the Oregon Charge Ahead Rebate of $5,000; and local incentives of $100-$1,500, electric vehicle buyers in the state could acquire a base Tesla Model 3 for just about $26,990-$28,390.
But it’s not just the Model 3. The Ford Mustang Mach-E, which has an MSRP of $45,995, could be acquired for $29,495-$30,895 with Oregon’s incentives. The Chevrolet Bolt EV, which is an affordable electric car to begin with, could see its price drop to as low as $10,000-$11,400 in the state, and the Nissan Leaf, the veteran EV from Japan, could be acquired for as low as $11,540-$12,940. These prices, of course, assume that a car buyer meets the state’s criteria to qualify for the available tax credits and incentives.
More details on Oregon’s EV incentives can be viewed here.
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News
Tesla enters interesting situation with Full Self-Driving in California
Tesla has entered an interesting situation with its Full Self-Driving suite in California, as the State’s Department of Motor Vehicles had adopted an order for a suspension of the company’s sales license, but it immediately put it on hold.
The company has been granted a reprieve as the DMV is giving Tesla an opportunity to “remedy the situation.” After the suspension was recommended for 30 days as a penalty, the DMV said it would give Tesla 90 days to allow the company to come into compliance.
The DMV is accusing Tesla of misleading consumers by using words like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving on its advanced driver assistance (ADAS) features.
The State’s DMV Director, Steve Gordon, said that he hoped “Tesla will find a way to get these misleading statements corrected.” However, Tesla responded to the story on Tuesday, stating that this was a “consumer protection” order for the company using the term Autopilot.
It said “not one single customer came forward to say there’s a problem.” It added that “sales in California will continue uninterrupted.”
This was a “consumer protection” order about the use of the term “Autopilot” in a case where not one single customer came forward to say there’s a problem.
Sales in California will continue uninterrupted.
— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) December 17, 2025
Tesla has used the terms Autopilot and Full Self-Driving for years, but has added the term “(Supervised)” to the end of the FSD suite, hoping to remedy some of the potential issues that regulators in various areas might have with the labeling of the program.
It might not be too long before Tesla stops catching flak for using the Full Self-Driving name to describe its platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
The Robotaxi suite has continued to improve, and this week, vehicles were spotted in Austin without any occupants. CEO Elon Musk would later confirm that Tesla had started testing driverless rides in Austin, hoping to launch rides without any supervision by the end of the year.
Investor's Corner
Tesla stock closes at all-time high on heels of Robotaxi progress
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, jumping over 3 percent during the day and finishing at $489.88.
The price beats the previous record close, which was $479.86.
Shares have had a crazy year, dipping more than 40 percent from the start of the year. The stock then started to recover once again around late April, when its price started to climb back up from the low $200 level.
This week, Tesla started to climb toward its highest levels ever, as it was revealed on Sunday that the company was testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin. The spike in value pushed the company’s valuation to $1.63 trillion.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
It is the seventh-most valuable company on the market currently, trailing Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
Shares closed up $14.57 today, up over 3 percent.
The stock has gone through a lot this year, as previously mentioned. Shares tumbled in Q1 due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which pulled his attention away from his companies and left a major overhang on their valuations.
However, things started to rebound halfway through the year, and as the government started to phase out the $7,500 tax credit, demand spiked as consumers tried to take advantage of it.
Q3 deliveries were the highest in company history, and Tesla responded to the loss of the tax credit with the launch of the Model 3 and Model Y Standard.
Additionally, analysts have announced high expectations this week for the company on Wall Street as Robotaxi continues to be the focus. With autonomy within Tesla’s sights, things are moving in the direction of Robotaxi being a major catalyst for growth on the Street in the coming year.
Elon Musk
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs says.
Tesla is in the process of rolling out its Robotaxi platform to areas outside of Austin and the California Bay Area. It has plans to launch in five additional cities, including Houston, Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
However, the company’s expansion is not what the focus needs to be, according to Delaney. It’s the speed of deployment.
The analyst said:
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Profitability will come as the Robotaxi fleet expands. Making that money will be dependent on when Tesla can initiate rides in more areas, giving more customers access to the program.
There are some additional things that the company needs to make happen ahead of the major Robotaxi expansion, one of those things is launching driverless rides in Austin, the first city in which it launched the program.
This week, Tesla started testing driverless Robotaxi rides in Austin, as two different Model Y units were spotted with no occupants, a huge step in the company’s plans for the ride-sharing platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
CEO Elon Musk has been hoping to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis in Austin for several months, first mentioning the plan to have them out by the end of 2025 in September. He confirmed on Sunday that Tesla had officially removed vehicle occupants and started testing truly unsupervised rides.
Although Safety Monitors in Austin have been sitting in the passenger’s seat, they have still had the ability to override things in case of an emergency. After all, the ultimate goal was safety and avoiding any accidents or injuries.
Goldman Sachs reiterated its ‘Neutral’ rating and its $400 price target. Delaney said, “Tesla is making progress with its autonomous technology,” and recent developments make it evident that this is true.