Tesla Delivers First Lower-Cost Model 3 Cars

Tesla Delivers First Lower-Cost Model 3 Cars

Tesla Inc. has finally made its long-promised affordable electric car. But it could take years to get it to all the people who want to buy it.

Tesla delivered the Model 3 small car to its first 30 customers - all employees - at a company party Friday (29) night. CEO Elon Musk said Tesla will build the cars as fast as it can, but acknowledged that supply issues and other complexities will make it tough to reach his goal of making 500,000 cars next year. Fourteen-year-old Tesla has never made more than 100,000 cars in a year.

“We’re going to go through at least six months of manufacturing hell,” Musk told reporters Friday at Tesla’s Fremont factory. “It’s going to be quite a challenge to build this car.”

With its $35,000 starting price - half the cost of Tesla’s previous models - and range of up to 310 miles (498 km), the Model 3 could bring hundreds of thousands of customers into the automaker’s fold, taking it from a niche luxury brand to the mainstream.

Musk said around 500,000 people worldwide have already put down a $1,000 deposit to reserve a Model 3. People ordering a car now likely won’t get it until late 2018. Cars will go first to employees and customers on the West Coast; overseas deliveries start late next year, and righthand drive versions come in 2019.