Cosmic Log
As big as the Model 3 electric car is for the future of Tesla, the sport utility vehicle known as the Model Y could be bigger, according to CEO Elon Musk.
“I would expect that the demand for the Model Y would be … maybe 50 percent higher than Model 3?” Musk said today during a teleconference reviewing the company’s fourth-quarter financial results. “Could be even double.”
Tesla’s Model 3 electric car was the focus of today’s chatter in the wake of the company’s quarterly earnings report, which posted revenue that was stronger than expected ($2.79 billion vs. $2.51 billion, pre-estimated by Thomson Reuters) and a loss per share that was lower than expected ($1.33 vs. $1.82 pre-estimated). In the wake of last week’s first 30 Model 3 deliveries, Tesla said 1,800 net reservations are coming in daily. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the net backlog stands at 455,000 reservations, with 63,000 would-be buyers canceling their reservations (and getting their deposit back).
As thousands of employees and fans cheered, Tesla CEO Elon Musk drove a red Model 3 electric car onto the stage at the company’s factory in Fremont, Calif., tonight – and then handed over the first 30 cars to customers.
The glitzy ceremony marked a milestone in Tesla’s campaign to produce an electric car targeted at a mass market, with a base price as low as $35,000. It also marked the start of what Musk called “production hell … for at least six months, maybe longer.”
“As the saying goes, ‘If you’re going through hell, keep going,’” he joked.
The hundreds of thousands of customers who have plunked down deposits for the mass-market Tesla Model 3 electric car are finally getting a glimpse of what they’re buying.
In a pair of tweets, Tesla CEO Elon Musk showed off “Production Unit 1” for the Model 3, which rolled off Tesla’s assembly line in Fremont, Calif., and went through final checkout.
As you can see, the car is basic black. In a follow-up tweet, Musk noted that Ira Ehrenpreis, an early investor in Tesla who’s also on the company’s board, had the rights to the first Model 3 because he was the first to put down a full deposit.
However, Musk added in Twitter shorthand that he “gave those rights to me as my 46th bday present. Tks Ira!”
Tesla’s billionaire CEO, Elon Musk, says the first production model of the company’s anxiously awaited mass-market Model 3 electric car will roll off its assembly line on July 7.
Pre-production prototypes of the car have been spotted over the past few months, but in a series of tweets on July 2, Musk said the model met all of its regulatory requirements two weeks ahead of schedule and is ready for purchase.
Musk said the first 30 customers would get their Model 3’s at a party on July 28, and that the production rate at Tesla’s plant in Fremont, Calif., would ramp up to 20,000 cars per month by the end of the year
Tesla’s billionaire CEO, Elon Musk, is showing off a video of the company’s more affordable Model 3 electric car – but he’s also touting Tesla’s pricier models.
A clip that shows a black release candidate version of the Model 3 zipping down the street popped up this morning on Musk’s Twitter and Instagram feeds, and quickly picked up tens of thousands of views, plus thousands of shares.
Tesla says it’s “on track” to start producing its mass-market Model 3 electric vehicles in July, and plans to build 5,000 of the cars per week by the end of the year.
The company, which reported financial results for 2016’s fourth quarter and the full year today, also said it’ll pick locations for as many as three more Gigafactories this year. Tesla’s first Gigafactory, in Nevada, is already turning out power cells for the company’s energy storage system, while its second factory is building solar panels in New York.
“We start 2017 well positioned to scale our business significantly,” Tesla said in its typically upbeat quarterly letter to shareholders.
Investors reacted positively, turning Tesla’s price trend from a minus to a plus in after-hours trading.
Quarterly revenue exceeded Thomson Reuters’ expectations, reaching $2.28 billion rather than the predicted $2.19 billion. Tesla’s loss per share amounted to 69 cents, which was more than Thomson Reuters’ forecast of 42 cents but less than Bloomberg News’ advance estimate of $1.14.
In the week since Tesla Motors unveiled its Model 3 electric car at the not-so-ludicrous price of $35,000, would-be owners have put in orders for more than 325,000 cars, company CEO Elon Musk reported April 7.
Even Musk admitted that the response was two to four times higher than he expected it to be. “No one at Tesla thought it would be this high,” he said in a tweet.
In a blog post, Tesla Motors noted that the reservations could translate into $14 billion in sales. (That’s based on the assumption that the average option package would bring the per-car cost to $43,000.)
When Model 3 production ramps up, starting in late 2017, Musk is aiming to turn out as many as 500,000 cars a year. But hitting that mark could pose a challenge.
Tesla Motors’ Model 3 electric sedan may be geared for mass-market affordability, but CEO Elon Musk made it clear at tonight’s unveiling that he doesn’t intend it to be a third-rate car.
“It will be five-star in every category,” Musk told a standing-room-only, occasionally raucous crowd at Tesla’s warehouse-sized design studio at Hawthorne, Calif.
The $35,000 Model 3’s promised capabilities were arguably the biggest surprise of the evening: Musk said the scaled-down sedan would still have ample room for five people, thanks to a design that moves the instrument panel farther forward than the panel in the $70,000 Model S.
Even the base model will go from zero to 60 mph in less than 6 seconds, Musk said. And the driving range will be at least 215 miles on a charge.
“These are minimum numbers,” Musk said. “We hope to exceed them.”
BELLEVUE, Wash. – As the clock counted down to the big reveal for the Tesla Model 3 electric sedan, would-be buyers lined up by the hundreds today to put down a deposit, sight unseen.
The phenomenon was reminiscent of the hullabaloo that typically accompanies Apple’s launch of a new iPhone.
The Model 3 is way more expensive than an iPhone: List price, before tax incentives, is expected to be around $35,000. But that’s low for a Tesla, and that’s the point. All those folks who have been salivating over a $70,000 Model S sedan or an $80,000 Model X SUV are finally seeing something in a lower price range.