Ok, 18M households is still a pretty sweet market.
45M drivers is what I was thinking.

You can lease a brand new 2015 Leaf S with 0 down for $250/month with 12K miles/yr...which is nice because it's fully warrantied, has a longer range and more features than the older Leafs, and you don't have to be stuck owning it when battery prices drop and ranges increase further.

Model S might start at $70K but it can be optioned up to $100K.
The Model 3 will be similar. It might start at $35K but it will option up to $50K.
You could still have a starting price of $35K but with an average selling price of $45K.

The battery will not be more than 30% of the value of the car.
It will last for a least 10 yrs in the car.
It will be used for other purposes or recycled after those 10 yrs.
The car can last much longer than the battery. It doesn't need to be scrapped.
Replacement batteries will be much cheaper by the time they are needed.
The motor itself is likely to last much longer than a gas engine as it's much simpler.

Assuming the car is $35K and looking at household income in the USA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

It looks like you can start to afford this car when you're in the 75th percentile, and comfortably afford this when you're in the 85th percentile of American households...assuming average housing/living costs.

If we go by the 85th percentile range, there's 45+ Million potential households that could afford/buy this car.

This certainly will make it difficult for them to pose a long term threat to anyone. A society that doesn't allow math won't last long.

I noticed you are struggling to deal with it. Perhaps I can help.

What percentage of IT/scientist/engineer folk wear casual clothes to work?

I personally wear jeans and a t-shirt most days, with the occasional polo shirt or button down when we have executive leadership visiting. I'd wear a suit if it came with a substantial raise, but otherwise no.

with in a post - within a post - within a post - (it's posts all the way down!)

seems like the average life expectancy of SSDs are well beyond the needs of most people at the moment, unless you're doing some serious content creation with massive amounts of read/writes.

perhaps computer science is a liberal art...
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/06/...

Maybe some of them will grow and become successful and move out of state to chase their own tax breaks?

Anyways, small business get their own set of subsides from state and federal gov.

Yeah hate to respond to the AC but here goes...

Different usage patterns have different gains.

Talk time is more than 100% increased.
Video watching time is 10% increased.
Lots of other use cases fall in between these numbers.

...and how does a wild Mustang roam in half? sound painful.

I think a factory this big is going to lead to a thousand smaller businesses being started in the area or moving from other locations to service Tesla itself and the large population of people that Tesla will employ.