Skip to footer

Tesla Model 3: long-anticipated 215-mile, $35,000 electric car revealed

The Model 3 quite closely follows the style of the Model S sedan and Model X crossover, and it’s unmistakably a Tesla. Yet at a far more affordable $35,000 starting price, it should help break past dismissals that Tesla is a brand only for the rich.

|
Handout/Reuters
A Tesla Motors mass-market Model 3 electric car is seen in this handout picture from Tesla Motors on March 31, 2016.

At a launch event held in Hawthorne, California, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk introduced the Model 3 sedan, the company's highest-volume, lowest-priced effort yet.

The Model 3 quite closely follows the style of the Model S sedan and Model X crossover, and it’s unmistakably a Tesla. Yet at a far more affordable $35,000 starting price, it should help break past dismissals that Tesla is a brand only for the rich. And the Model 3 is a crucial step toward the company’s goal of 500,000 annual sales.

Just over the past couple of days, the company has made great strides toward seeing that goal as perhaps reasonable. In the 24 hours leading up to the beginning of the launch event, more than 115,000 people put $1,000 each down to make a reservation for the Model 3—sight unseen, and before any specifications had been detailed.

Rated at least 215 miles

While we still won’t call the Model 3 clearly defined, we have a much better idea of where it will land in the market. Musk declared that base versions of the Model 3 will accelerate to 60 mph in less than 6 seconds, and have a minimum 215-mile driving range

Tesla wouldn’t say anything yet about the capacity of the battery packs in the Model 3, although this model is lighter than the Model S, so a smaller-capacity pack should go farther.

Such a driving range would handily beat the anticipated range of the Chevrolet Bolt EVand the next-generation Nissan Leaf—both models that arguably lack the brand image and luxury cachet of Tesla.

Outdoing Leaf and Bolt EV, eying German sport sedans

This new sedan, which will be sized quite closely to the Audi A4, BMW 3-Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and others, will measure between compact and mid-size by U.S. standards. Like most of those models (and like the Model S and X), the Model 3 is rear-wheel drive, with dual-motor (all-wheel-drive) versions available.

Exact dimensions haven’t been released yet—and the car that was shown was officially a design prototype—although Musk noted that the Model 3 will have space for five. As with Tesla’s other models, the Model 3 has a front “frunk” in addition a rear one—which adds up to more cargo capacity than any car of the same outside dimensions, according to Musk.

Tesla moved the instrument panel forward, which allowed a more forward seating position in front, freeing up more space for the rear passengers as well. The roof is one continuous pane of glass.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Tesla Model 3: long-anticipated 215-mile, $35,000 electric car revealed
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2016/0401/Tesla-Model-3-long-anticipated-215-mile-35-000-electric-car-revealed
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe