Elon Musk took to Twitter over the weekend to show off a production model of the Tesla Model 3, the first “affordable” fully electric car from Tesla that’s secured hundreds of thousands of $1,000 deposits from fans. We say “affordable”, because the starting price is still $35,000… but that’s substantially less than Tesla’s other vehicles, and makes the Model 3 a genuine consideration for a far wider car-buying public than its stablemates.
The first 30 cars rolled off Tesla’s new Gigafactory facility in Nevada last week, with production set to ramp up dramatically as the year progresses. Nonetheless, many of those who’ve put down the requisite deposit won’t be getting their Model 3s for at least a year.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2017
The production version looks very similar to the version that Musk unveiled when announcing the Model 3. If anything, the final version looks a little sportier and racier, which is unlikely to put off any of the early adopters. If anything, we think it’s even more attractive.
Now we just need to figure out how to convince Musk to open a Tesla dealership (or a dozen) in South Africa. But, you know, he’s also sort of busy trying to get us into space and fixing South Australia’s electricity problems by building the world’s biggest lithium ion battery in three months or less.