The only reason Tesla has not already sold an affordable electric car is the cost and availability of batteries, hence the gigafactory. What if we were sold a Model 3 with no battery? What if we leased or short term rented the battery instead? Or even better what if changing the battery became as common place like the promise of those charging stations where we were supposed to be able to swap our battery for a fully charged one? Then we could pay as we go with the battery pack. That way the initial investment would be lot less daunting as would the insecurity around choosing the wrong battery size. It would also go a long way to future proofing the car. And Tesla is in a unique position to make use of outdated batteries in their up and coming energy storage business. Why isn't this already a reality in the Model S and X? I cringe as I spend a 100k on a Model X knowing the huge cost of the batteries might be worth a lot less by the time I want to sell the car.