(And also, Tesla a luxury brand? Seriously?)
Model3 is expensive because it is hype and electrical.
EDIT: your reply is actually making my point (cannot reply anymore so replying here). All the other EV Cars such as the Bolt that nobody would consider luxurious are around the same price.
Maybe you're claiming all the other electric cars like, say, the Buick Velite or the Kia Soul EV have some hype price premium too. I really don't think most non-car people have ever heard of those models though so I doubt they can pump the price based on hype.
To claim it is like a Mitsubishi mirage at 15k is disingenuous.
The electric comes at a premium. The gasoline Kona is 20k and electric is 37. Go drive both for a week, then come back to me and say they handle the same, the acceleration is the same, the experience is the same. You won't because it just isn't...
I've extensively driven hybrid and electric models of the same cars (I have been working in a fleet related car company for years, I have access to hundreds of cars), they are as different as a flip phone and smartphone. This is the broad consensus of the staff ... it's plain and obvious when you can do 500+ miles comparisons, electric vendor X model Y > gas same vendor X model Y ... without exception (well so far at least).
We can drive any car for free (we keep at excess capacity, kinda how the supply systems work), nobody on staff rolls off with a gas car these days. Conservatives, liberals, doesn't matter, EV is just better tech.
I still claim the iphone of the electric isn't here yet. Tesla is a good blackberry, but there's something else coming ... don't know when don't know from where but the trajectory is obvious. Even the 2015 -> 2020 improvements are like moore's law level strides ... it's certainly coming soon.
You can be a late adopter on moore's right hand side of the chasm curve and be a holdout for a while, I know I am ... that's fine ... but the gears are already spinning on this one.
The base msrp is about 16k on that class, the tesla 3 is 40k.
That's 2.5 times more expensive. Substantial difference.
Just wouldn't work though with the baggage from the rest of the existing business.