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Tesla’s Model 3 has started production and the electric car company is targeting a rate of 20,000 a month in December.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said the vehicle had passed all its regulatory requirements for production two weeks ahead of schedule.
The company will hold a handover party for its first 30 customers of the Model 3 on July 28. Tesla aims to produce 100 of the cars in August and more than 1,500 in September in its push to achieve its year-end goal.
The Model 3 is the company’s most affordable car yet at around BD13,000. It now makes two all-electric models: the Model S sedan and Model X sport utility vehicle.
The new offering is the culmination of Tesla’s 15-year-quest to reach mainstream consumers with a smaller, more affordable electric car. The Model 3 price tag is in line with the industry’s average new-car transaction price in the US.
Tesla first unveiled the Model 3 in March 2016 at a late night party at the US company’s design studio in Hawthorne, California. The company reported last spring that 373,000 people have placed $1,000 deposits for the vehicle and hasn’t given an updated reservation figure in the year since.
Model 3 reservations ‘skew young and urban’, Jon McNeill, Tesla’s president of global sales and service, said last year. The first Model 3s are expected to go to employees of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk’s space exploration company.
The company delivered 25,051 vehicles in the first quarter and aims to make 500,000 in 2018 and 1 million in 2020. Tesla is expected to release second-quarter sales figures this week.
Until recently, Tesla owned the market for fully-electric vehicles that can go 324km or more on a charge. But that’s changing. GM beat Tesla to the mass market with the Chevrolet Bolt, a car that goes about 200km per charge. Audi plans to introduce an electric SUV with 486km of range next year and Ford will have one by 2020. Volkswagen plans more than 30 electric vehicle models by 2025.
And, competitors like Mercedes and Volvo - not to mention tech companies like Google and Uber - appear to be matching Tesla’s efforts to develop self-driving vehicles.
