Tesla has lowered its price for the Model 3\, but the cheaper version is still months away

• It's one step closer to the originally promised base price of $35,000 before any kind of credit and fuel savings. 
• In January, a tax credit available to Tesla buyers was cut in half to $3,750 from $7,500.

Tesla has lowered the price of the Model 3 to $42,900 - or $35,000 after tax credits - CEO Elon Musk announced early Wednesday.

It's still not the base-model price point originally announced by Tesla when it first unveiled the Model 3, but is a step in that direction. The standard battery is still four to six months away, according to the company's website.

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"We're doing everything we can to get there," Musk tweeted about the $35,000 base price without credits. "It's a super hard grind."

In January, the tax credit available to Tesla buyers was slashed in half, from $7,500 to $3,750, after it passed the program's threshold of 200,000 vehicles sold.

Earlier in February, Tesla announced that it had launched the Model 3 in China, where it is in the process of building a second Gigafactory. It also said a cheaper version of the Model 3 was on the way for Chinese buyers.

Shares of Tesla sank about 0.6% in early trading Wednesday after closing up 2.7% on Tuesday.

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