Now that Tesla has made an affordable all-electric luxury mobile, the finish line for gas-powered cars just got a little closer. Don’t get me wrong; we’ll never be done with oil as a car fuel source. Some would rather go back to horses than not have a diesel bone-rattler under the hood, old habits die hard.

The Model III (3 for the uninitiated) was released with much fanfare. The car will not be available for over 2 years and yet more than 250,000 plunked down a $1,000 deposit just to get in line to buy one. The car will be in the range of $35,000 – $40,000 and, while it won’t be as loaded as the Model S, will have an oh-so-impressive list of “standard” features. Among them, a 17 inch touchscreen which acts as a command center, which fulfills all my Star Trek requirements. It will also come with the now famous autopilot. If that’s not enough, it will be a fast little sedan clocking in 0-60mph in under 4 seconds. Granted, these are just numbers right now, we’ll have to wait to see and feel the final result.

So why, you ask, is this a game changer? Other manufacturers have their electric cars…Chevy, BMW, Porsche and Lexus to name a few. This is a game changer in the sense of numbers, pure and simple. To have a quarter of a million people ready to buy an all-electric car and a chance to have a Tesla experience tells a story. There are no lines at other dealerships to snap up the latest models. Not to say that there aren’t waiting lists for some of these others, but this is an affordable option for those who can’t afford a Model S, a Panamera or an I8. This will be somewhat of a revolution on how Americans choose to travel their roads.