Tesla driving towards mass market for 2017 as Elon Musk announces Model 3
Tesla boss Elon Musk announced on Twitter that the company’s third car offering would be the mass-marketable Model 3, which he hoped would go into production in 2017.
He tweeted on Wednesday night: “Model 3, our smaller and lower cost sedan will start production in about 2 years. Fully operational Gigafactory needed.”
And, in a separate tweet: “$35k price, unveil in March, preorders start then.”
He also took the opportunity to announce that the first Model X crossover utility vehicles (CUVs) would be handed over to customers on 29 September, from the company’s Fremont factory in California.
Musk finished his Twitter session by defending the higher price point for the Model X signature series, which starts at $132,000.
“With same options, Model X is $5k more than an S due to greater size & body complexity. Sig Series is fully loaded, hence high price.”
In August, Musk said Tesla was on track to start handing over the cars by the end of September, and that the first customers could start choosing their paint colour (signature red, deep blue and titanium), and other extras like ski and bike racks or the speed upgrade – for $10,000 (£6,554), you can go from zero to 60mph in 3.2 seconds.
The Model X was launched as a concept in February 2012, and it was initially hoped that it would be ready to go on sale in 2103, which was then moved back to the end of 2014.