Tesla’s mass-market car Model 3 passed all regulatory requirements, expected to roll off factory floor Friday
Tesla Inc. American automaker and solar panel manufacturer announced the production of its mass-market Model 3 has passed all regulatory requirements and would start this week.
Chief Executive of the company Elon Musk unveiled about the facts on his official twitter account; he said that mass-market car Model 3 has passed all regulatory requirements for production two weeks ahead of estimated schedule and is expected to complete SN1 on Friday.
Musk also revealed on Twitter that, its much-anticipated mid-market sedan, the $35,000 Tesla Model 3, will reach its first buyers on July 28. That’s on track with the company’s previous estimates despite delays and production woes with its previous model, the Model X SUV.
He said Tesla will deliver 30 Model 3s by the end of July, and ramp up production to 20,000 Model 3s a month by December — a rate of 240,000 a year.
Musk aims “to get as many electric cars on the road as possible” — to make car buyers happy and to save the planet, he says, but surely also to enrich himself and reward his shareholders.
Tesla’s Model 3 is the company’s first major push into broadening its consumer base. The base price for the Tesla Model 3 is reportedly $35,000, which is significantly lower than its previous models.
A few facts are known about Model 3 production. A Tesla engineer told the Los Angeles Times that the glass roof on the Model 3 isn’t there just to look cool. It also enables robots to reach into the car from the top, before the glass is installed
The Model 3 was designed for efficient manufacturing, unlike the Model X, which was designed according to the whims of Musk, who, for example, insisted on falcon-wing doors that were difficult and costly to manufacture and led to embarrassing quality problems.
In comparison, The Model S can be had for $68,000, and the Model X costs about $82,500. Still, the Model 3’s $35,000 figure assumes that the buyer wants to add no bells and whistles.
Musk has previously described the Tesla Model 3 as “a smaller, more affordable version of Model S with less range and power and fewer features.” He added that the “Model S has more advanced technology.”
Tesla Inc. has produced about 80,000 of them last year. With the Model 3 line running at its only assembly plant, in Fremont, Calif. Tesla intends to build 500,000 cars in 2018 and, Musk said, a million in 2020.