Musk was recently asked on Twitter if the Model 3 is going to have the Ludicrous mode as well, to which Musk simply replied: “of course”.
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After a year of General Motors and Tesla dominating electric vehicle news, people have rightly wondered what Ford was going to do about it. Would the Chevy Bolt EV and Model 3 make their debuts without a Blue Oval entry on the table?
Mark Fields, CEO of Ford, told The Detroit News and others earlier this week: “Our EVs come down to making sure we’re the best or among the leaders in those areas”.
“Clearly that’s something we’re developing for”, Fields said last week during Ford’s first-quarter earnings conference call. In comparison Tesla Model S now has a 0.24 Cd drag coefficient. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has said the $US35,000 ($46,000) Model 3 slated for late 2017 will go 215 miles (346km) or more between plug-ins. With highway range of 487.93 kilometres (303.2 miles), the sedan from California just became the first production electric vehicle that can go over 300 miles on a single charge. Tesla was deluged with $1,000 reservations for the Model 3 after Musk revealed it March 31 at the company’s design studio in Hawthorne, California. This is because it will have the same motors, yet will also be lighter than the Model S.
There have also been rumors that the American company is working on the Model Y to sit just below the Model X. This will enable the company to directly rival electric cars like the Nissan Juke.
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Fields statement clearly shows the company is ready to step up the competition in the electric vehicle market. Fields didn’t give information as to when Ford would begin producing the Model E. However, following Ford’s timing, it is expected to happen in the next 2-3 years to give Chevrolet Bolt, Tesla Model 3, the longer-range Nissan Leaf a run for their money. Those models will represent 40 per cent of Ford’s United States showroom, up from 13 per cent now.
