For a car that hasn’t even entered into production yet, much has already been said about Tesla Model 3. But just as skeptics are beginning to conclude that Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) will repeat history and fail to meet its deadline, a tweet by CEO Elon Musk announced otherwise.
Musk’s tweet happily said: “Model 3 passed all regulatory requirements for production two weeks ahead of schedule. Expecting to complete SN1 on Friday. Handover party for first 30 customer Model 3’s on the 28th!”
That’s just a part of his tweet, though. He also outlined that after initially producing 30 cars this July, it will be followed by 100 cars in August; and over 1,500 cars starting in September. Going even further, Musk seemed optimistic that by December, their monthly output will be at 20,000 cars. It’s a big jump, though it’s still lower than earlier estimates as Musk previously said he is expecting production output to be at 10,000 per week by December.
Tesla Model 3 is, of course, Tesla’s ticket to breaking into the mainstream market. Since the company started over a decade ago, its specialty had always been to sell premium electric vehicles. And by premium, we mean a hefty price tag averaging $100,000.
But Musk had other ideas too. And that included building a model that’s specifically meant to appeal to the masses. That’s what Model 3 is all about.
Designed to carry 5 passengers, have a range of around 345 kilometers on a single charge, accelerate from 0 – 100 kilometers per hour in under 6 seconds, and have the necessary support for semi-autonomous driving (Tesla’s Autopilot hardware), Tesla 3 is being sold at a starting price of $35,000. So far, there are already at least 400,000 people who have expressed intent to be a Model 3 owner, having paid a deposit of $1,000 as reservation.
Taking that number into account, and comparing it with the expected production output, it’s easy to see that many of those who put down a deposit (especially the ones who did so later than the rest) won’t be driving their Model 3 until 2019 at the earliest. Unless Tesla is able to ramp up everything and figure out a way to accelerate production somehow.
The good news is, this particular model seems to be coming along as scheduled. That’s something to look forward to. And, it will also give the prospective owners a bit more time to save up some more so they won’t have to be limited to the Model 3 in its most basic form. There’ll be add-on features for sure.
Right now, the waiting time for Tesla Model 3 has just become a little more definite. What remains to be seen is whether Tesla can indeed hit its succeeding targets so Model 3 can truly live up to its goal of being a car for the masses.
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