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Lines Await Unveiling of New Tesla Electric Car in Old Pasadena

Published on Thursday, March 31, 2016 | 1:20 pm
 
Photo credit: Laura Lee Moser via Facebook

A queue formed outside the Tesla Motors Pasadena dealership at 117 West Colorado Blvd. as dedicated fans await the unveiling of the company’s Model 3 electric car – a lower priced sedan that comes at a starting price of $35,000, less than half the cost of Tesla’s previous models.

A report on KABC-TV said people have flown in from overseas just to get a chance to deposit $1,000 for a car that may take a year before it becomes available. The report showed people in sleeping bags outside the Pasadena dealership.

Tesla is expected to unveil the Model 3 at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, March 31, 2016, at its Los Angeles design studio.

The new model is expected to have a range of at least 200 miles when fully charged, about double what drivers get from competing cars in its price range.

Tesla did not release details about Model 3 before the unveiling event, but it has opened up reservations although deliveries would only be available by the end of 2017.

“When production begins, we will begin deliveries in North America starting on the West Coast, moving east,” a Tesla announcement earlier in March said. “As we continue to ramp production, we will begin deliveries in Europe, APAC and right-hand drive markets. It is not possible to ship to all regions simultaneously because regulators in each part of the world have slightly different production requirements. Staggering deliveries in this way also allows us to provide the best possible customer experience.”

Tesla currently sells two electric vehicles – the Model S sedan, which starts at $71,000, and the Model X SUV, which starts around $80,000. CEO Elon Musk has long pursued a dream to come up with a low-priced sedan, saying Tesla planned to build “a wide range of models, including affordably priced family cars” in order to speed the world toward a solar-powered future.

An Associated Press report said the Model 3 will be using cheaper batteries that will come from a massive $5 billion factory being built by Tesla and Panasonic Inc. in Nevada. Tesla says the scale of the factory will lower the cost of the car’s battery packs by 30 percent. The company previously assembled battery packs with battery cells made by Panasonic in Japan.

The Model 3 is a critical part of the company’s plan to increase sales from around 85,000 this year to 500,000 by 2020, AP said.

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