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Tesla confirms the Model 3 is on track and reaffirms unveiling in March

Model S with Model X design

According to Tesla Senior Design Executive Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla first planned to unveil the Model 3, its upcoming mass market electric car, at the Detroit Auto Show 2015, but that deadline passed almost a year ago.

Last year, Tesla updated its timeline to March 2016 and EV enthusiasts are anxious to know if the automaker will stick to the new target. So far so good, a Tesla official confirmed today that the Model 3 is on track for a March unveiling.

Tesla Director of Global Communications Khobi Brooklyn confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday that “Model 3 is on schedule” and the company still plans to unveil the prototype in March and start selling the car in 2017.

Preorders are expected to become available at the unveiling.

What we know about the Model 3 is limited. It is expected to have a starting price of $35,000 before any incentive and a range of more than 200 miles on a single charge – much like the Chevy Bolt EV, which we had the chance to test drive today.

Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel said that the majority of Tesla’s engineers are now working on a new platform and battery architecture for the Model 3.

We also revealed last year that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is pushing his team for the Model 3 to have a drag coefficient lower than .20, which could result in extreme aerodynamic design details.

Make sure to follow us on your favorite social media to get our latest articles as we expect to break more news about the Model 3 as we get closer to the unveiling:  TwitterFacebook or Google+

Featured image: A Model S with the Model X’s front-end by NikonD3s

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Comments

  1. BEP - 8 years ago

    Geneva, here I come.

    • Fred Lambert - 8 years ago

      don’t book your flight or hotel yet (unless you are from Geneva). Tesla normally launches new models at its own events, not industry shows. I think the Model 3 will be no different.

      • BEP - 8 years ago

        It would be a train ticket. Anyway, you’re right. But there is a chance that the car will be launched in, let’s say, Hawthorne and then be shown in Geneva.

      • Trev Page - 8 years ago

        Tesla unveils new cars at their design studio in Hawthorne (located behind SpaceX headquarters)

  2. Jonesy - 8 years ago

    It’s weird how you report that the Bolt is “under $30,000 after the Federal Tax Credit.” Meanwhile you report that the the Model 3 is “$35,000 before any incentives.” It’s as if you don’t want to attribute a lower dollar figure to the Model 3, whose base-price-before-incentives is lower than the base-price-before-incentives of the Bolt.

    • Fred Lambert - 8 years ago

      you know that these two articles were written by different authors right? I can assure there wasnt any collusion. Also if you are trying to say that I’m purposely trying to make the Bolt look better than the Model 3, you are wrong. I even wrote this opinion piece months ago: http://electrek.co/2015/07/06/opinion-the-chevy-bolt-is-not-a-tesla-killer/

      • Rambo - 8 years ago

        Who was it written by? I only see your name on the article. Also it doesn’t really matter if you didn’t write it because if the article has false or misleading information than you shouldn’t put it up on your site in the first place. Either use a better article or rewrite it yourself. One of the reasons I like visiting this site is because I trust the people running it will filter out garbage and write fair and relevant articles. But over time trust can be lost if these articles are written in this way. Propaganda is more effective if it’s subtle. You wont see effective propaganda in an article titled “Fuck Tesla”. The best types are found in the nuances of the language used in the details of the article (even more effective when the article seems pro Tesla). This article made it sound like the Bolt and Model 3 are neck and neck when in reality the Bolt is both a lot shittier and more expensive than the Model 3.

      • BEP - 8 years ago

        Wow, Rambo, you’re so lucky. You had the chance to extensively test both the Bolt and the Model 3. And you already know the exact pricing. And your text comprehension skills are impressive, too.

      • Fred Lambert - 8 years ago

        Rambo. I don’t get how you can accuse me to be unfair to Tesla on pricing in regards to the Bolt when you are replying to a comment where I link to me saying:

        “GM is making a $37,500 car that would sell for $20,000 if it wasn’t electric, while Tesla is trying to make a $35,000 car that would sell for $35,000 if it wasn’t electric.”

        It makes no sense.

        Also, in regards to you saying you “only see [my] name”. You are not following. I was replying to a comment made by Jonesy who referred to another article about the Bolt because I don’t know if you actually read the article, but I never explicitly wrote the price of the Bolt in this article. It looks like you are jumping in an argument you don’t even understand.

    • Dafty Punk - 8 years ago

      At the rate that Tesla is selling cars, there’s a chance the full federal tax credit will not be available for the new Tesla’s when the model 3 is finally for sale.

    • Trev Page - 8 years ago

      GM is advertising that number as they expect to not hit the 200000 unit rebate reduction with 30,000 cars made a year. Tesla is deliberately advertising the Model 3 price before tax rebates because they will hit 200000 cars by late 2017 at current production rates so the tax rebates will start phasing out for customers to be able to claim them. Best to not set anyone up for disappointment.

      • viktor - 8 years ago

        I’m not from USA so I don’t have full knowledge about the $7500 tax credit but wouldn’t it just count the sales in USA? If not, Nissan have already pass it and Mitsubishi is coming a long way before they have even enter the market. Tesla have sale over 100.000 cars but a lot of them is outside USA, do you think that they will come up to 200.000 cars in USA before the end of 2017?

      • Fred Lambert - 8 years ago

        You are correct. Only US sales count and no I don’t think they’ll get to 200k by the end of 2017. I estimates the Model 3 will be on the market for about a year before Tesla runs out of tax credits under the current structure.

  3. Sue Black - 8 years ago

    Please send me updated

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