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The Model 3 is the type of vehicle that will offer range, affordability and performance” for the mass market
In September 2015, Tesla announced that the Model 3 would be unveiled in March 2016. In January 2016, Musk said that the first official pictures of the car will be revealed at the end of March 2016. Delivery would begin in late 2017 first on the U.S.’s west coast and then move eastwards. Potential customers were
first able to reserve a car at Tesla stores or online on March 31 with a refundable deposit of 1,000.00. In February 2016, Tesla indicated that the unveiling would be on March 31, 2016. Employees of Tesla and SpaceX were given early access to Model 3 reservation, and about 10,000 signed up without discount, scheduled to receive the first batch of cars. Current owners of Tesla vehicles will get priority sales after employees but before the general public, as a reward for helping pay for the development of the Model 3. Early production is usually more flawed: both the Model S and the Model X had several problems at the start of their production, but have since improved.
Tens of thousands of people waited in lines to place the refundable deposit, in 2016, to reserve a Model 3 for 2017 delivery. During the Model 3 unveiling event, Tesla said that over 115,000 people had reserved the Model 3 in less than 24 hours prior; more cars than Tesla had sold by that time. Twenty-four hours after opening reservations, Tesla had advanced orders for over 180,000 cars. Two days later, Tesla said they had 232,000 reservations.
One week after the unveiling, Tesla said it had over 325,000 reservations, more than triple the number of Model S sedans sold by the end of 2015. Musk said that five percent of reservations correspond to the maximum of two vehicles allowed per customer, “suggesting low levels of speculation” and that ninty-three percent of Model 3 reservations are from new buyers who do not currently own a Tesla. The previous record for advance deposits on a car was the 1955 Citroën DS that had 80,000 deposits during the ten days of the Paris Auto Show, while the Model 3 had 232,000 reservations in two days.
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The Model 3 was the top-selling Plug-In Electric car in the U.S. for 12 months in-a-row
According to Tesla, China is the second-largest market for the Model 3 after the US. Tesla said the number of net reservations totaled about 373,000 as of May, 2016; after about 8,000 customer cancellations and about 4,200 reservations canceled by the automaker because these appeared to be duplicates from speculators. Upon its release in July 2017, there had been over 500,000 reservations for the Model 3, with Musk later clarifying there were a net of 455,000 reservations outstanding and an average of 1,800 reservations were being added per day.
In 2013, design chief Franz von Holzhausen said that the Model 3 will “be an Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class type of vehicle that will offer everything: range, affordability, and performance” that is targeted toward the mass market. While technology from Tesla’s Model S will be used in the Model 3, it will be twenty percent smaller than the Model S and have its own unique design. According to Tesla’s CTO, JB Straubel, in October 2015, most Tesla engineers were working on the 3 rather than S or X. Since electric cars have lower cooling needs than combustion cars, the Model 3 does not have or need a front grille. Musk intended for the final design to be released on June 30, 2016 but when the design was finished on July 27, it was not publicly released. After the final design of the first Model 3, any further changes would be included in future versions of the Model 3. The optional glass roof developed by Tesla Glass will be made of the same glass used for Tesla’s roof tiles; a glass roof was introduced on the Model S in late 2016.
The Model 3 is mostly steel, with some aluminum. Tesla planned to increase the size of the Tesla Factory in Fremont, California to accommodate Model 3 production.
“BlueStar” was the codename for the Model 3 project in 2013. Tesla spokesman said that they expecting to produce 400,000 cars per year.
Tesla told its suppliers that it intended to double earlier- announced Model 3 production targets to 100,000 in 2017 and
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