Mexican Media Brands
Tesla Still Finalizing Model 3 Design, Supply Chain
Tesla Motors Inc. hasn’t yet finalized the design of its Model 3 electric sedan or vetted the car’s network of suppliers, according to the company’s quarterly financial report.
#hybrid
Share
Tesla Motors Inc. hasn’t yet finalized the design of its Model 3 electric sedan or vetted the car’s network of suppliers, according to the company’s quarterly financial report.
The $35,000 car was publicly unveiled at the end of March and is scheduled to go into production at the end of 2017. Tesla says it has collected 325,000 reservations at a refundable $1,000 each for the Model 3 to date.
A smooth launch and strong sales for the Model 3 will be critical in helping Tesla become a sustainably profitable company. But CEO Elon Musk told analysts that the company may not complete engineering decisions about the Model 3 until early July. Critics point out that neither of Tesla’s current EVs—the Model S and Model X—met their original launch dates or initial production targets.
Musk also says Tesla now expects to achieve annual output of 500,000 Model 3s in 2018, two years sooner than originally planned. Skeptics consider that target extremely ambitious.
In the meantime, Tesla’s financial report indicates the company may invest more than $2 billion through the remainder of 2016 on the Model S. About $500 million of the total would be used to launch low-volume production at the company’s “gigafactory” battery plant outside Reno, Nev.
RELATED CONTENT
-
What the VW ID. BUGGY Indicates
Volkswagen will be presenting a concept, the ID. BUGGY, a contemporary take on a dune buggy, based on the MEB electric platform that the company will be using for a wide array of production vehicles, at the International Geneva Motor Show.
-
Chevy Develops eCOPO Camaro: The Fast and the Electric
The notion that electric vehicles were the sort of thing that well-meaning professors who wear tweed jackets with elbow patches drove in order to help save the environment was pretty much annihilated when Tesla added the Ludicrous+ mode to the Model S which propelled the vehicle from 0 to 60 mph in less than 3 seconds.
-
48-volt Hits Production
“In 2025, approximately one in five new vehicles across the world will be equipped with a 48-volt drive,” Juergen Wiesenberger, head of Hybrid Electric Vehicles at Continental North America said last week.