Search the Community

Hurrah readers in the United States - you can finally buy a Tesla Model 3 EV for $35k, provided you order it in black and without Autopilot. The news comes amid a storm of mixed communications regarding Tesla store closures and moving to online sales - something which the brand announced a blanket approach on in a statement released on 28 February 2019, only to revert back and announce the closing of 'half' of its stores: 'in other words, we will only close about half as many stores, but the cost savings are therefore only about half.' Tesla says the basic and cheapest version of the Model 3 will remain at $35,000, but the rest of the Model 3, S and X ranges will face a price increase of 'about 3% on average worldwide.' And that was after a huge price drop had already irritated some recent buyers. It's all quite confusing, but hopefully the $35,000 price tag for an entry-level 3 will translate into a somewhat competitive price when right-hand drive models go on sale in the UK. For reference, German buyers can choose from a 'long distance' (€52,300) and 'Performance' (€63,000) version but no standard one just yet. Are they finally building enough Tesla Model 3s? Yes. Production has steadied to the point that a new report published in July 2018 by Reuters, the company only just missed its goal of producing 5000 of the EVs per week, but it did hit the target a few hours after the midnight deadline. That’s one of the first times Tesla has come remotely close to hitting one of Musk’s self-imposed deadlines, and shares rose by 6% as a result. Elon Musk followed up the news by tweeting that the company produced 7000 models in total that week: ‘Not only did we factory gate over 5000 Model 3s, but we also achieved the S & X production target for a combined 7000-vehicle week,’ he wrote, in an an email obtained by Bloomberg in July 2018 ‘What’s more, with the widespread productivity gains throughout Tesla and the new production lines spooling up, we are on track to reach 6k/week for Model 3 next month.’ The news was obviously good for Tesla, and especially welcomed by those on the ever-growing Model 3 waiting list. However, while the numbers are good, some of the methods Tesla has used to get them – including production ‘tents’ – aren’t exactly conventional, and they don’t seem sustainable, either. Article created by „carmagazine”.