I mean of all cars. Here's an example of fresh data. 37k is the average purchase price for January 2019 and there aren't many brands/categories below 30k:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/average-new-car-pri...

Yeah but you can’t compare the Model 3 to all cars. It’s closest equivalent is a mid sized luxury car. And most consumers are not getting those. It’s real competitor is a mid sized sedan aka the Camry. Average transaction price for those is $25k. You can’t include pickup trucks in the comparison as there is no way you can use any Tesla models as a pickup.

With federal and state incentives the price drops below $30k for California which is Tesla's biggest market so far. People have also been willing to pay 5-10k more for Tesla than their previous cars. So Tesla just needs to stay ahead of the demand at each price point. It's not like people pay for their cars in one go they pay in bank installments. And the $150~250 savings in gas and servicing costs makes the monthly cost of ownership of $25k Camry and $35k Tesla the same over 5years. With Tesla ownership being cheaper after 5years.

The point is that what people are willing to pay for a car is already well within the range of a Model 3. If you wanted to compare like for like the actual comparison is a BMW 3 Series or Mercedes C Class, not a Camry. But you can definitely include pickups in the comparison since most people that buy a pickup or SUV have no actual use for them, it's just a fashion symbol. And yet here's the Model Y on the way. The model 3 is already a feasible mass market car in the US any way you run the numbers. Even a Camry goes to over 35k. If you see the numbers I quoted there are now very few car types that average below 30k.