TechRadar

Tesla Model three release date, news and features

Update: The very first thirty Model three cars are now with their fresh owners after a handover party on July 28, but the rest of us are still going to be waiting a while.

Tesla was founded thirteen years ago and shipped its very first car in two thousand eight – the Roadster. At a base price of $109,000 (£86,950, AU$191,888), it was a long shot away from Elon Musk’s vision of an affordable electrical vehicle (EV).

It took four years before the very first Model S reached buyers, which now starts at $70,000 (£50,000, AU$97,245) before incentives and is still not very cheap.

Now that the Model S and X are out the door, Tesla unveiled its very first affordable car – the Model Three. Admittedly, the number doesn’t make a lot of sense, as it’s not the third car from the electrified car manufacturer, but it’s actually a play on the letter E.

The Model three doesn’t slot in inbetween the S and X in terms of, well, anything truly. But you can see where Tesla was going with this.

According to Fortune, Tesla dropped an application for the Model E after a dispute with Ford who have an on-off relationship with the letter, in use on its E-series of vans.

Cut to the pursue

• What is it? Tesla’s most affordable EV
• What’s the range? two hundred fifteen miles approx
• How do I reserve one? Tesla store or website with a $1,000 deposit
• When it is out? Very first thirty arrive July 28
• What will it cost? Starts at $35,000 (£30,000, about AU$45,700)
• How prompt is it? 0-60 mph is Five.Trio seconds

Tesla Model Three: What is it?

The Model three is the very first affordable Tesla, kicking off at $35,000 (£30,000, about AU$45,700) before any government tax incentives. It should qualify for the $7,500 federal tax credit for US buyers, which brings the price below $30,000 before state incentives, if you’re among the early reservations.

The tax credit is only available for the very first 200,000 EVs sold by each manufacturer. According to Electrek, Tesla’s cashflow tells the story of over 400,000 pre-orders so meeting the cutoff is pretty unlikely.

If you’re in the US, depending on the state you live in, more incentives are available to bring the price down even further. In the UK there are also numerous electrical vehicle incentives, so it’s worth checking these out if you’re thinking of purchasing the Model Trio.

Australia still seems to be falling behind in terms of its electrified vehicle incentives, albeit if this switches, we’ll let you know.

The entry-level Tesla Model three is claimed to give you two hundred fifteen miles from a single charge, and there are plans to suggest other configurations like with the Model S and X.

Compared to the two thousand fifteen Nissan Leaf rated for 84-miles of range, two hundred fifteen miles would save the trouble of having to charge in public for 95% of usual driving.

It will feature seating for five adults, losing the two rear-facing seats that the Model S has, and has less than half the trunk volume at four hundred liters. There will also be fewer options for configuration with the Model three – less than one hundred in fact – compared to the Model S that has over 1,500 possible configurations.

Another thing worth noting is that owners of the Model three will not benefit from free charging at Tesla Supercharger charging stations like owners of the previous models.

Prices for using Tesla Superchargers vary by location and can be found on the Tesla website.

Tesla Model Three: Will it have Autopilot?

Every Tesla Model three will have the hardware for Autopilot technology for semi-autonomous driving, including the base model. We commend Tesla for this announcement as the Nissan Leaf has zero advanced driver assists and the Chevy Bolt will only have basic collision prevention driver assists.

However, Autopilot convenience features, like adaptive cruise control, self-parking and autonomous lane-changing assists are optional. Tesla presently charges $Three,000 to add the convenience features to the Model S and X.

Tesla Model Trio: How’s the spectacle?

The Model three will do 0-60 in Five.Three seconds, making it just slightly swifter than the two thousand fifteen BMW 228i Convertible, albeit just slightly slower than the Coupe version.

It will make use of two thousand one hundred seventy lithium-ion battery cells engineered in conjunction with Panasonic. Larger battery capacity and spectacle variants will be available, but that information has not been disclosed.

The Model three is rear wheel drive (RWD) with dual motor all-wheel drive (AWD) available as an option. AWD in the Model S costs $Five,000 more than its RWD counterpart. Ludicrous mode will be available as an option, too.

In the Model S, Ludicrous mode cut the 0-60 time down to a sweeping Two.389 seconds. What this mode will mean for the Model three is yet to be exposed, but rest assured you’ll never be left behind at a crimson light again.

Tesla Model Trio: What’s the competition?

The Tesla Model three competes with luxury gasoline and mainstream electrical vehicles. On the luxury side, it’s base price puts it in the crosshairs of the BMW 3-series, Mercedes C-class, Audi A4 and Lexus IS – all gasoline sedans.

There’s also the all-electric BMW i3 and plug-in hybrid electrified (PHEV) Audi A3 Sportback e-tron, which have higher base prices but shorter pure-electric range.

The mainstream competition consists of current available EVs, like the Ford Concentrate Electrical, Kia Soul EV, Volkswagen e-Golf and Nissan Leaf. Competition gets tougher if you expand to include PHEV’s from Chevrolet, Ford, Hyundai and Kia.

But that’s not all, because the competition from EV makers heats up, too. Chevrolet announced the Bolt EV, with two hundred miles of all-electric range at CES two thousand sixteen and availability by the end of the year.

Nissan is expected to substitute the aging Leaf with a newer, longer-range model in the near future, and Hyundai’s upcoming all-electric Ioniq is expected to have 110-miles of range.

Tesla Model Trio: How do I buy one?

You can reserve your Model three at your local Tesla store or online. Reservations are now so booked up that if you pre-order today you should expect a wait of 12-15 months before your vehicle actually arrives. Presently Tesla predicts a mid-2018 arrival for pre-orders placed today.

It will cost $1,000 (£1000 and AU$1,500) to reserve a Model Trio. The deposit is fully refundable if you switch your mind, and you can can apply it towards a Model S or X at any time.

The very first Model three has officially left the production line. Typical to Elon Musk, the news came in the form of a series of tweets. A duo of weeks after tweeting that the Model three had passed all regulatory checks, Musk tweeted:

Production unit one of Model three is now built and going through final checkout. Pics soon.July 9, 2017

Followed swiftly after by this rather lovely picture, the orange light of sunset reflecting off its sleek flank.

North American buyers will get the very first Model Three’s, beginning from West to East coasts. as part of a previous Musk tweet chain, he talked about a handover party for the very first thirty customers on July 28.

Now the official Tesla Twitter account has tweeted to say that the handover party is going to be livestreamed on the official Tesla website, so you can gently sob your way through eyeing other people living your desire.

See the very first Model three handovers on https://t.co/7Ol1Bw0ZaG this Friday at 8:45pm PT pic.twitter.com/b00OZGviNKJuly 26, 2017

Europe and Asia-Pacific regions are next, while right-hand drive markets (i.e. the UK) are last. The specific shipping dates are yet to be exposed.

Looks like we can reach 20,000 Model three cars per month in DecJuly Three, 2017

I switched my mind, now what?

The Model three deposit is totally refundable, in case you switched your mind, like we did. You can contact Tesla via phone or e-mail to request a refund.

We used the contact form and selected “Existing Order or Reservation” as the topic. After submitting the cancellation, we did not receive an e-mail confirmation. There was a note that says you should expect a reply within forty eight hours.

It took six days before we received a reply from Tesla, confirming the cancellation.

Hello,This email is to confirm that we received your request to cancel your reservation. Your request is being processed and you should expect to see refund of your reservation payment to your original form of payment in approximately fifteen business days.Best Wishes,The Tesla Team

Our thoughts

The Tesla Model S was a revolutionary car that switched the public perception of EVs. It has insane spectacle and over two hundred fifty miles of electrified range, when mainstream EVs couldn’t even thrust one hundred miles then.

But, despite the price, the interior wasn’t fairly up to snuff, and we found the suspension tuning lacking around an autocross course compared to luxury brands.

With the Model Trio, the EV landscape has drastically switched. The Chevy Bolt has already launched, is well reviewed, and has a comparable two hundred mile range, providing it a long head commence.

However, a base Model three has a $Two,500 base price advantage, a minimum of two hundred fifteen miles of range, striking styling and standard Autopilot safety features (optional convenience features), which instantly puts it ahead of all presently available and upcoming EVs from traditional automakers.

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