The car that has been subject to speculation for months is now a reality, going into production in California.
CEO Elon Musk said, “Production grows exponentially, so August should be 100 cars and September above 1500. Looks like we can reach 20,000 Model 3 cars per month in December.”
At last report, Tesla was holding 373,000 USD 1000 deposits from global customers for the Model 3 which will sell in the United States for USD 35,000.
The first customer deliveries will naturally be made in Tesla’s home base of California before being extended to the USA before filling the export orders.
According to Musk, orders placed now in the US will be filled in mid-2018 at the earliest.
Musk also confirmed that the Model 3 had achieved regulatory approval from US authorities two weeks ahead of schedule.
Tesla has got over delays caused by battery supply problems, but the new Tesla battery plant in Nevada, dubbed Gigafactory, began mass production of lithium-ion cells early this year, easing the issues.
The five-seat Model 3 has a claimed a driving range of 345 km – short of the Model S large sedan’s 490 km and, but still more than enough distance between charging.
As opposed to the Model S P100 D with its ‘ludicrous’ mode returning zero to 100 km/h in 2.7 seconds, the Model 3 claims under six seconds, which is still more than adequate.
Prices are way above the average for automobiles in the USA, so it will cost even more to become an Auto-Greenie in this country. I will hazard a guess at around 20 million baht.
