The very first production Tesla Model 3 has been built and is ready to be delivered to its waiting customer – namely Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself.
Once again Tesla’s showman chief executive has used Twitter to catch us all off guard, posting two photographs of Tesla Model 3 number one. It’s hard to spot any key differences between this road ready car and the pre-production models touted by Tesla way back at the car’s initial unveiling in March 2016, but we should get a complete overview of the production Model 3 very soon. A handover party for the first 30 Tesla Model 3 cars is planned for 28 July, and we can expect to hear full details on powertrains, trims, finishes and options.
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The first Model 3 car isn’t destined for Musk’s garage because of any rank pulling, however. In a separate tweet, the Tesla boss revealed that board member Ira Ehrenpreis held the ticket for order number one, but is handing the car to Musk as a 46th birthday present.
With a waiting list over 400,000 long, the vast majority of buyers – including UK customers – will have to wait until 2018 to get their cars, but Musk has laid out a 2017 production schedule. The boss expects Tesla to produce a small batch of around 100 cars in August, ramping up to over 1,500 in September. By the end of the year, the company could be in a position to manufacture 20,000 cars per month.
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Tesla Model 3 spy shots
The first pictures of the very first production Model 3 come after months of sightings and spy shots. A clutch of cars snapped by Reddit user 'inamachineshop' gave us a pretty representative look at what those who plan to buy Tesla’s ‘affordable’ all-electric BMW 3 Series rival will get when it begins to arrive on driveways.
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In terms of exterior design, little has changed compared to the pre-production car revealed last march, while in the cabin a new three-spoke steering wheel is found. The dashboard is still sparse, however, with just a large landscape infotainment screen mounted centrally.
The Model 3 will adopt a more conventional hatchback body, but retains the sleek sloping roofline Teslas has become known for. A larger glasshouse than that seen on the bigger Model S creates a higher roofline, while the sunken bonnet gives it a very distinct profile.
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Musk has also confirmed that early Model 3s will be rear-wheel-drive only – buyers holding out for the all-wheel-drive dual-motor version will have to wait a little while. Musk explained that in order to keep the production ramp on schedule, the first cars will be the simpler rear-wheel-drive versions.
Tesla Model 3: all the details
The Tesla Model 3 is one of the most anticipated new cars of 2017, and it’s a potential game-changer for the California based electric car company – it’s the firm’s cheapest offering yet, and also its first attempt at creating a mass production EV with true mainstream appeal.
The Model 3 is a compact saloon sitting underneath the Model S in Tesla’s range, and comes with a BMW 330e baiting price tag. £35,000 is the magic number, and Tesla plans for first mass deliveries of the vehicle to take place in Q4 2017.
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Production delays have hampered Tesla launches in the past, but this latest update reveals the company is on track with the Model 3. Limited production is under way, with volume production by September 2017. Across all three of its model lines, Tesla aims to be capable of making 500,000 cars a year in 2018.
Like other Tesla launches the Californian company shunned the traditional motor show reveal to slowly unwrap the car on its own terms. We caught our first glimpse of the pre-production Model 3 at “part one” of its reveal in March 2016 followed by more news in October 2016, confirming that the Model 3 will support fully autonomous driving in the near future.
Those lucky enough to have reserved a Tesla Model 3 are benefitting from regular updates on their 'My Tesla' page. The company also has a Model 3 Configurator will is available to customers depending on when they placed their reservation, although the update at least shows us one more colour which is likely to be available - a dark blue which we've not seen before.
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Rivals for the Model 3 will not be in short supply with cars like BMW’s 3 Series, Audi’s A4, Jaguar’s XE and the Mercedes C-Class offering similar dimensions with more conventional powertrains. That low price for a fully electric car will set alarm bells ringing across the industry, however. The Model 3 is likely to be closer to £35k by the time it arrives in the UK but with the plug-in car grant factored in, it will still be very competitively priced.
To date, many details on the Tesla Model 3 have yet to be released, but we know that the car will offer a minimum range of 215 miles with its advanced lithium ion batteries and all-electric powertrain. Performance wise, the Model 3 will blast from 0-60mph in just 6s as standard, but faster versions will be offered. "Tesla doesn't make slow cars", said Elon Musk.
Musk has confirmed in a tweet that the Model 3 will be getting Tesla's 'Ludicrous Mode' - a software tweak which unlocks even more potential from the car's electric drivetrain. When employed on the most powerful Model S, the P100D, it can accelerate from 0-60mph in just 2.3 seconds - although we don't expect the Model 3 to be quite that fast as it won't recieve the 100kWh battery pack, again confirmed by Musk on Twitter.
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Tesla's smallest car won't come with free Tesla Supercharger access either - the company is ending the practice of allowing new customers to top up for nothing at the stations. Model S and X owners will get Supercharger credits, but any freebies for Model 3 owners look unlikely.
The Model 3 and Tesla’s master plan
The Model 3 has been part of Musk's plan since the company's inception. In 2006, Tesla published what Musk refers to as the “Secret Master Plan”. Step one: The Tesla Roadster, an expensive low-volume car intended to show the world that electric vehicles could be compelling. Step two: The Model S, a mid-production, not-quite-so-expensive car that would show the world how practical, useful, and downright good an electric car could be. (As for the Model X SUV, Musk regards that as step two-and-a-half.)
And now we have Step Three: An affordable mass-market electric car in the guise of the Tesla Model 3.
Tesla Model 3 design details
Appearance-wise, it's no surprise that the Tesla Model 3 looks like a downsized Model S. With electrical gear taking up so little space, downsizing the Model 3 was mostly a matter of shrinking the ends of the car and shifting the front seats forward to provide more rear-seat room.
Like other Teslas, the Model 3 offers two boots, front and rear. The Model 3 has no grille, save for a small scoop at the bottom edge of the bumper. While this is no doubt good for aerodynamics, it gives the car a rather unfinished look when seen from the front, although the facelifted Model S and Model X both now have a similar look.
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Model 3 minimalist interior
The Model 3's interior is incredibly simple in its design. The cabin is dominated by a large touchscreen mounted horizontally rather than vertically as in other Teslas. Speed and gear selection are displayed in the upper corner of the screen, with a strip of climate controls at the bottom. The rest of the screen real estate is split between the map display and stereo controls.
Unlike other Tesla models, that's it for instrumentation—in fact, that's it for anything. Aside from a small squared-off steering wheel, the dash is nothing more than an unadorned strip of black and white, with a centre console bisecting the front bucket seats. It's the kind of interior we expect to see in a concept car, but Elon Musk has confirmed this is very close to the production version - it'll remain bare and operated through the central display.
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The Model 3's rear window extends right up over the roof to the car's B-pillars, while a large sunroof over the front seats completes the illusion of a nearly-all-glass roof. The glass roof also improves rear-seat headroom, and the front seats have been pushed forward for more legroom. The six-footers riding in the back get legroom that’s acceptable and headroom surprisingly generous.
Tesla Model 3 specs and price
The Model 3 will have a base price of US$35,000 (about £28,500), which includes hardware for the Autopilot system (with all safety features as standard fit) but its cheaper price means you'll have to pay to use Tesla's Supercharger network.
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Nought-to-sixty times for the base rear-wheel-drive car will be under six seconds but our ride in the dual-motor four-wheel-drive car revealed performance that felt far in excess of that. Body lean was well controlled too - no surprise with the battery and motor mounted so low - but until we get our own hands on the wheel we’ll reserve judgement on the handling.
Range will be at least 215 miles per the stringent standards of America's Environmental Protection Agency. What was left unsaid? Musk made no mention of charge times or price points for the higher-performance dual-motor version.
Tesla Model 3 production and the Gigafactory
While Musk says Tesla's existing plant in Fremont, California, is capable of building 500,000 cars per year (in its past life as a joint GM-Toyota plant, it produced around 350k per year), and that is Musk's goal by 2018. The issue is that every electric car needs a battery, and in order to build a half-million electric cars per year, Musk says Tesla would have to absorb the entire world's current lithium-ion battery production.
That is the job of Tesla's new Gigafactory in the Nevada desert. The plant is nearing maximum production capacity, and once up to speed, Musk claims the factory will produce 50 gigawatt-hours of batteries — “More lithium ion batteries than all the other factories in the world combined.”
Tesla Model 3 pre-orders and Tesla customer loyalty
With the assembled crowd at the original launch of the Tesla Model 3 cheering nearly every sentence Musk uttered, one got the sense that the details of the Model 3 are largely unimportant. Not unlike Apple, buyers believe in Tesla and they are ready to purchase whatever the company deigns fit to sell them. Hours before the announcement, would-be buyers lined up at Tesla dealerships to put down a £700 refundable deposit in order to secure their order.
As the car was revealed, Musk announced that they had already taken 115,000 orders. Online reservations opened as Musk took the stage, and less than two hours after he left, the number was closing in on 135,000. By the end of 2 April 2016, two days after the Model 3 reveal event, 276,000 orders had been taken for the car. Now, that number stands at over 400,000. If all these translate into firm sales that's over $10bn (£7bn) of revenue for Tesla.
We spoke to would-be buyers who had queued up at a dealership in Burbank, California, and waited nearly three hours to put down their deposits.
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“I've been waiting for a longer range electric car because 90 miles isn't suitable [for me]”, said Bob Antonopolous, a laywer from LaCanada, California. He currently owns a Chevrolet Volt, the American version of the Vauxhall Ampera. So why a Tesla Model 3 and not General Motors' upcoming Bolt EV?
“It's the range and their track record,” he said. “The Model S had Consumer Reports' highest score ever when it came out. I'm impressed with the technology and the company, and I'm not willing to bet against Elon Musk on too many things right now.”
The Tesla Model S made headlines in the US when Consumer Reports, America's leading consumer ratings magazine, announced that the Model S they had purchased scored 99 out of a possible 100 points, the best score in the magazine's 80-year history. When the magazine upgraded to a P85D, the new car broke both the record and the scoring system with an unprecedented 103 points.
Despite the high rating, Consumer Reports refused to give the Model S a “recommended” rating because of reliability problems. Tesla surveyed 1,400 owners and found reports of frequent issues ranging from bad drive motors to leaky sunroofs, enough to rate its reliability as “worse than average” (though owners also noted that Tesla was quick to sort out the cars under warranty.) Despite the problems, 97% of owners surveyed said they would buy another Tesla. Such is the allure of this brand.
Why do Americans, who are such sticklers for quality and reliability, love Tesla and all that it does? Perhaps it's the ethic that drives Elon Musk and his company. “It's very important to accelerate the transition to sustainable transport,” Musk told the assembled crowd at the Model 3 reveal. “This is really important for the future of the world.”
Tesla Model 3 name revealed
Back in 2014, Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of electric car brand Telsa, exclusively revealed a new electric BMW 3 Series rival, called the Tesla Model 3, to Auto Express. We had heard some talk about a Tesla Gen III model named 'Model E', but Musk told us exclusively what the name of the new car was - and why it had to be changed.
“We had the model S for sedan and X for crossover SUV, then a friend asked what we were going to call the third car,” Musk told us. “So I said we had the model S and X, we might as well have the E.
“We were going to call it model E for a while and then Ford sued us saying it wanted to use the Model E – I thought this is crazy, Ford’s trying to kill sex! So we’ll have to think of another name.
“The new model is going to be called Model 3, we’ll have three bars to represent it and it’ll be S III X!”
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