Tesla officials are touting the value of their electric cars amid rising consumer concerns about car and gas prices.
“On our vehicle side, it’s always, I think, worth noting that a Tesla car is (an) incredible value for money and they’re all autonomy-ready depending on what part of the world you’re in,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk told investors during the company’s first-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, April 22.
Tesla chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja added that Tesla’s value proposition is helping the company capitalize on a surge in EV interest that has occurred since gas prices spiked.
“On the order backlog front, we ended the quarter with the highest Q1 order backlog in over 2 years,” Musk said. “Whilst the recent increase in gas prices has had a positive impact on the order rate, this improvement started before the uptrend in gas prices. This is due to the work done by the Tesla team in bringing more compelling and affordable vehicles to market.”
The comments came as Tesla revealed it is sitting on more than 50,000 unsold EVs — its production far outpaced sales in the first quarter of 2026. The nation’s biggest electric car seller reported global production of 408,386 cars in Q1 but sold only 358,023 in the same period.
The average price of gas was $4.05 per gallon on Friday, April 24, down slightly from $4.07 per gallon on April 17.
How Tesla’s Price Compares to Other EVs
The average price of a new Tesla EV in the first three months of 2026 was $53,421, according to Kelley Blue Book. The average price of all new electric vehicles in the same period was $54,508 — making Tesla slightly cheaper than the broader EV market.
Tesla’s average prices in March were 2.6% lower than its March 2025 average transaction amount, and 1.2% lower than February’s average Tesla price.
Tesla’s price was aided by an average incentive of about $6,570.78, which represented 12.3% of its overall average transaction price. The average incentive for other electric cars in March was $7,958.16, or 14.6% of the overall average price of a new EV.
Taneja said Tesla is ramping up production of the Model 3 sedan because of its value for shoppers.
“Ten years back, when we launched Model 3 in the U.S. with a promise of $35,000 starting price, which if you adjust today for inflation translates to about $48,000 in today’s dollar terms,” Taneja said during the April 22 call. “The starting price of Model 3 today is way less than that while the product is way more compelling from where it started. Given the setup, we’re focused on increasing our overall production volume, something that we already started in Q1.”
Tesla’s Growing Pile of Unsold EVs
Tesla produced 50,363 more electric cars than it sold in the first three months of 2026 — so deals are likely available for shoppers. That gap is dramatically higher than the 16,131-vehicle surplus the company reported in Q4 2025, when Tesla produced 434,358 cars and sold 418,227.
For all of 2025, Tesla produced 1,654,667 EVs and sold 1,636,129, a gap of just 18,538 units for the full year.
