If you’ve been lusting after an electric car from Tesla Motors, but the price tag has gotten in the way, take heart — a new $35,000 Model III is coming to market in 2017.
The Tesla Motors Model III was officially announced late last night, and the details we have so far are pretty enticing.
According to the UK car blog Auto Express , the Tesla Motors Model III is likely to cost $35,000 in the U.S. and £30,000 in the U.K.
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk commented on the new model’s name, saying that the brand tussled with Ford over their original selection.
Musk explains:
“We had the model S for sedan and X for crossover SUV, then a friend asked what we were going to call the third car… So I said we had the model S and X, we might as well have the E.”
He adds:
“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… The new model is going to be called Model 3, we’ll have three bars to represent it and it’ll be S III X!”
The big question everyone has about the switch to electric vehicles is range, and the slimmed down Tesla Motors Model III is expected to have a range of two hundred miles, a bit shorter than that of the Tesla Model X.
Following the initial flurry of chatter over the newest, cheapest impending Tesla vehicle, the brand took to Twitter to confirm (and unconfirm) news about the new addition.
Tesla tweets first:
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
Later, the brand explains that concept car photos for the Tesla Motors Model III have not been released yet, adding that the circulating images were ones mocked up by the car blog above in their coverage of the announcement:
FYI, the Model 3 images used by @AutoExpress were mock-ups based on their own speculation.
— Tesla Motors (@TeslaMotors) July 16, 2014
Even before that, the brand tweeted some interior pics from the Tesla Model S, the company’s current sedan:
This is what it feels like to be the center of attention in a Model S. (Thanks @PanoBirds ) http://t.co/TsPTxb0BlU pic.twitter.com/IbGtcbXQ6H
— Tesla Motors (@TeslaMotors) July 14, 2014
It’s not yet clear where the cost savings from the Tesla Model III will come in in terms of fewer features, and the auto will officially be unveiled in 2016.
[Image: Tesla Motors]