This is Tesla’s Model 3

And there it is.

After years of speculation, the Tesla Model 3 has been unveiled. We’re live in Hawthorne, CA, where the company has just shown the car for the very first time.

Here’s what we know so far:

Deliveries will begin at the end of next year, and start at $35,000 for the base model. Base model will do 0-60 in under 6 seconds, with versions that go “much, much faster” to be announced later. Base model will get at least 215 miles per charge, and Elon said that “these are minimum numbers, we hope to exceed them”. Base model is rear wheel drive; dual motor versions are planned. All Model 3s will have autopilot hardware built-in — it’s not an additional upgrade. Like the Model S, it will have front and rear trunks. All Model 3s will come with supercharging support standard. The roof area is “one continuous pane of glass”. It has a 15-inch horizontal (widescreen) monitor in the dash, as opposed to the 17-inch portrait (vertical) monitor in the Model S and Model X. Much of the instrument panel — things like the speedometer — have been moved to the corner of that center dash display, as opposed to the Model S, where it’s on a separate screen behind the steering wheel. That behind-wheel screen, at least in this prototype, is gone.

Tesla Model 3 Event Recap

But what good is a snazzy electric vehicle if you can’t easily charge it? Tesla’s more popular supercharger stations can already get super busy during peak times — add in a sudden onslaught of Model 3 owners, and things might get crazy. Fortunately, Elon also committed Tesla to doubling the number of public superchargers from 3,600 to 7,200 by the end of 2017 — right around the time the Model 3 is scheduled to ship.

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