The Tesla Model S retails for $70,000 Tesla hopes to introduce a more affordable model by 2017

Ever since Elon Musk introduced the first Tesla Model S the world has been drooling over the innovative, electric luxury car. It doesn’t seem to bother people that a couple of Teslas have had some serious malfunctions and even blown up. The majority of Teslas on the street today are safe, reliable and extremely green.

Teslas have zero emission, and recharging the battery at Supercharger stations is free. The problem for most folks though is that the base price for Model S is $70,000 not to mention there’s a waiting list to buy one.

Tesla realizes that there is a strong desire for their vehicles. They also have a mission to make vehicles greener which is why they recently open sourced all of their patents. But they realize that not everyone is an engineer and will be able to use their patents to build their own Tesla in the garage, that’s why they plan on offering a Model E for just $30,000 by the year 2017.

At $30,000 that will put Tesla’s Model E in the same class as a BMW 3 Series or an Audi A4. The company may even open up their finance program even more to insure as many Model E’s as possible get on the road.

So why haven’t they released a more affordable car yet?

Well Geek.com reports that in order to release a car in the $30,000 price range Tesla needs to find a way to make the batteries cost less. Tesla plans to open a Gigafactory in one of four proposed US locations. They hope to have that Gigafactory turning out enough batteries for 500,000 Tesla vehicles per year by 2020.

That will give Musk just enough time to hit his goal of having his SpaceX company traveling to Mars by 2026.

Before the Tesla Model E, Geek.com reports that the company will begin production on the Model X which will be an SUV crossover vehicle.