Luxury electric carmaker Tesla has introduced a new line of more affordable battery-powered sedans in a bid to tap the mid-priced auto market amid low oil prices.
Tesla’s young billionaire owner, Elon Musk, unveiled the Model 3 Thursday night from a hangar in California, with the club atmosphere that has come to signify Tesla launches.
Earlier in the year, Musk was on cable shows talking about the price plunge in oil being a concern, because interest in electric cars drops when gasoline becomes cheap. The Commerce Department tracked a sizable spike beginning last year in purchases of bigger, gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles, over smaller fuel-efficient cars, as fuel prices fell.
Musk was optimistic, however, saying automakers that sell SUVs in addition to electric cars are going to be hurt more than him, explaining that his company fits a specific market niche.
But analysts say Tesla may face customer dissatisfaction if it can’t deliver on the vehicles, which it still has to make. Tesla says customers will have their cars by late 2017.
But would-be purchasers of the $40k-plus Model 3 need to get in line now, because there won’t be enough initially to go around. Despite the launch of its “gigafactory” in Nevada, customers need to sign their names, and ante up about a $1,000, to get on the waiting list.
Musk tweeted Friday that all is well with Model 3 soft sales, with the waiting list soaring to 180,000 cars.
Musk calculated aloud on Twitter: “Model 3 orders at 180,000 in 24 hours. Selling price w avg option mix prob $42k, so ~$7.5B in a day,” which equates to the “Future of electric cars looking bright.”
Musk called Thursday night’s unveiling “Part 1” of the Model 3 strategy. He says “Part 2” will focus on actual production, and “takes things to another level.”
