July 16, 2019 — Tesla announced they are lowering the price on the Model 3 Performance.

Thinking of pulling the trigger on a new Model 3 Performance? Now just may be the perfect time!

As they’ve done in the past, Tesla again dropped the price of the Model 3 Performance all the way down to $54,990, which represents a huge drop from the previous price of $59,500—it’s a discount of $4,510 to be exact—almost $5k!

Why did they do this? No official comment from Tesla has been released, but anyone who follows the company knows that they are constantly adjusting prices (as is standard practice in the auto industry). But like anything else Tesla does—this usually gets well-covered in the media, so there’s a lot of buzz about this price drop!

Unfortunately, if you purchased a P3D at a higher price point, you just have to bear the cost of early adoption. Anyone who follows Tesla prices may remember that prior to the 1/1/2019 $7,500 tax credit drop down to $3,750, the price of a P3D was hovering around $70,000—almost $15k more than it is now! And while, yes—people who purchased then did have the benefit of the full tax credit—the car is still substantially cheaper now!

P3D or LR AWD – Which Should You Choose?

This recent price drop on the P3D brings up an important question—should you get a P3D or a Long-Range AWD Model 3? Is the Model 3 Performance worth the extra money? Let’s take a look at the numbers…

At the time of writing, a LR AWD Model 3 costs $49,490 with the upgraded 19” sport wheels (added to this comparison make the car as similar feature-wise to the P3D as possible). The P3D clocks in at $54,990 with a difference of just $5,500 between the two models. So, is that extra $5,500 worth it to grab the P3D?

In our opinion—hell yes! Especially now that the price is so close, but the truth is that “worth it” is a relative term. Not everyone cares about cutting the 0-60 time from 4.4 seconds down to 3.2, or having track mode, or performance pedals, etc. But if you’re any kind of car enthusiast, we’d definitely recommend going for the P3D—at this point in time, it’s been heralded as a BMW M3 killer by just about every major car publication! For the purpose of comparison, think about this—the 2019 P3D is about as fast as the older P85D for a fraction of the price and with a full factory warranty—how can you beat that?!

If your budget is tight, an extra $5,500 may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and not worth the added expense. Or, if you just simply don’t see the value in spending the extra money for additional speed and performance features, then it’s also probably not worth it.

Another potential solution to the cost quandary is picking up a used Tesla Model 3 LR AWD and avoiding the $1,200 destination/doc fee that Tesla charges, and also saving a little bit on the initial depreciation (although Model 3s are holding their value extremely well at this point).

So—let’s get to the point—what’s our recommendation? Definitely go with the new lower-priced P3D. It’s an absolute blast to drive and quite literally—one of (if not the best) performance bargains available today!