Tesla unveils affordable Model 3 for mass market
Print Edition
TESLA Motors gave a sneak preview of its Model 3 sedan, saying more than 130,000 people had ordered the car, even though it is more than a year away from production.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk unveiled a prototype of the Model 3 in Hawthorne, outside Los Angeles, in California to hundreds of Tesla owners and the media on Thursday, saying the vehicle will go into production in 2017 at a starting price of US$35,000.
The Model 3 is critical to the Silicon Valley automaker’s growth plans and to sustaining its lofty stock price. Tesla shares have jumped in recent days in anticipation of the Model 3 launch.
The Model 3 will enter a crowded field of luxury and electric cars that includes gasoline-fueled models such as the Audi A4 and BMW 3-Series, and electric models such as the forthcoming Chevrolet Bolt EV from General Motors Co.
“Do you want to see the car?” teased Musk, to screams from the audience in the hangar-sized facility inside a Tesla design center. “We don’t have it for you tonight — just kidding!”
Three Model 3s were driven onstage. The compact sleek four-door car with no grille features a roof that is a panoramic pane of glass from front to back.
Musk said 115,000 pre-orders had already been taken on Thursday alone for the sedan. Within a half hour, that number reached 137,600 in a rolling scroll projected onto a screen.
Fans had camped out overnight, queueing outside Tesla stores across California to put down deposits on the car in scenes reminiscent of the launch of Apple Inc products.
The Model 3 is crucial for Tesla to reach its target of selling 500,000 cars per year by 2020.
The success of Tesla’s Gigafactory, its battery factory near completion in Nevada, is also contingent on the Model 3.
Tesla says scale from the massive facility will cut the cost of its battery pack by 30 percent to enable the lower-priced vehicle.
High expectations ahead of the unveiling have restored Tesla’s shares to around the US$230 mark, recovering from a year low of US$141.05 in February after analysts reduced price targets and revenue expectations.
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