Tesla Motors revealed its newest vehicle plans, a smaller car called the Model 3, that is designed squarely to take on BMW’s 3 series.
According Auto Express report — which Tesla confirmed on Twitter — the vehicle will be 20 percent smaller than the Model S, and go more than 200 miles on a charge.
Confirmed: Our Gen III car, due out after Model X, will be named Model 3. http://t.co/PLhUzycSlp pic.twitter.com/noZf17LXre
— Tesla Motors (@TeslaMotors) July 16, 2014
The Model 3 will be properly unveiled in 2016, with sales beginning the following year. The Model 3 will be based on an all-new platform rather than a cut-down version of the one underpinning the Model S and Model X. The new technology will be the brainchild of Tesla’s British engineering chief Chris Porritt, who used to work with Aston Martin.
In an interview with Auto Express, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk said the name for the Model 3 stemmed back to a legal entanglement with Ford, which threatened to sue Tesla over a trademark for “Model E.”
“We were going to call it model E for a while and then Ford sued us saying it wanted to use the Model E — I thought this is crazy, Ford’s trying to kill sex! So we’ll have to think of another name,” Musk said. “The new model is going to be called Model III, we’ll have three bars to represent it and it’ll be S III X!”
The Tesla CEO also stated that the current Tesla Roadster will be offered a “range upgrade” package soon that will see the existing (up to) 244 mile range expand to about 400 miles!
“The Roadster had an old generation battery. We’ll upgrade it to a new generation battery pack and it should have a range of about 400 miles, which will allow you to drive from LA to San Francisco non-stop.”
[source: Auto Express]
