Musk said the Model S and Model X, along with Tesla’s first vehicle, the discontinued Roadster sports auto, helped Tesla make the money to invest in the Model 3.
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On Thursday night, at an invitation-only, Hollywood-style premiere on his SpaceX campus in Hawthorne, Elon Musk and his Tesla team will unveil their latest creation: the Model 3, Musk’s long-awaited electric vehicle for the masses.
The fact that 115,000 people had already pre-ordered the auto before anyone actually saw it certainly bodes well for Tesla’s hope that it will be the major seller it needs. At a starting price of $35,000 before federal and state government incentives the Model 3 is less than half the cost of Tesla’s previous models. With a five star safety rating, Model 3 will also be the safest auto in its class. That’s because this is going to be the first real mass-market electric vehicle that does it all. Superchargers can charge Tesla cars from 0 to 100 per cent in roughly 75 minutes and are now offered free to those who own Tesla cars. According to Musk, the vehicle will be one of the safest in the world, and with a price tag of $35,000 it should hopefully deliver.
Currently, customers put down a refundable $1,000 deposit to order a Model 3, with some fans responsible for multiple deposits (though Musk tweeted that pre-orders would be capped at two per person). Finally, the Model 3 will come equipped with Tesla’s much-talked about autopilot capability. Production will not start until late 2017, and to handle orders, the EV firm will double its dealership and service network. Tesla is still taking orders saying they have capacity to build up to 500,000 cars at their Fremont, California facility that was once home to a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors.
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Talking of speed, we shall not expect the speed of light, but this auto will do up to 60 miles per hour.
