Tesla, Inc. is known for its fully electric, rechargeable cars that cater to different markets. Now, the car manufacturer is reportedly in the process of building production-level prototypes for its upcoming lower-priced vehicle, the Model 3.
According to a report on Inside EVs, Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has revealed that they already started building Model 3 prototypes, which he refers to as "early release candidates," weeks ago. He calls the prototypes "release candidates" because the vehicles that are currently being worked on could almost pass for production-level cars, as these are basically being built on actual production tooling.
Production of Model 3 has been confirmed by a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) document, in which Tesla states, "Our next vehicle introduction is the Model 3, a [lower-priced] sedan designed for the mass market. We intend to begin volume production and deliveries of Model 3 in the second half of 2017." The filed document also implies that production of the prototypes is already underway. "Candidates for such prototype are among the vehicles that we are currently building as part of our ongoing testing of our Model 3 vehicle design and manufacturing processes."
The Model 3 candidates are expected to be ready for driving tests within a couple of weeks.
As posted on Tesla's official website, the Model 3's starting price is $35,000. This will make it the company's most affordable vehicle since Tesla is reportedly going to discontinue its current cheapest, fully electric vehicle, the 60kWh Model S, next month.
According to The Verge, in an email sent by Tesla to its customers, buyers can place orders for the least expensive sedan, which has a starting price of $68,000, until April 16 only. After that, Tesla will remove the 60kWh Model S from its lineup to simplify the ordering process because when it was released a year ago, more people ended up buying the 75kWh Model S, which has a starting price of $74,500.
