Tesla confirms Model III name for mass market car but shoots down alleged leaked images

Not the Model III

Tesla and CEO Elon Musk told AutoExpress that the name of the third generation car would be called the Model III

“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 III, we’ll have three bars to represent it and it’ll be S III X!”

Tesla confirmed this via Tweet but didn’t like the images that AutoExpress used and in fact denied that these were the models for the III

FYI, the Model 3 images used by @AutoExpress were mock-ups based on their own speculation.

— Tesla (@Tesla) July 16, 2014

Confirmed: Our Gen III car, due out after Model X, will be named Model 3. http://t.co/PLhUzycSlp pic.twitter.com/noZf17LXre

— Tesla (@Tesla) July 16, 2014