Tesla to unveil Model 3 this month

The Tesla Model 3 will make its debut on March 31 at a Los Angeles event.

By Jimi Beckwith, Autocar UK

08 Mar 2016

3185 Views

Model X line-up in Manhattan. (Photo: Tesla)

Tesla will reveal its hotly anticipated Model 3 at an event in Los Angeles on March 31.

Tesla’s third model, which will be a smaller, all-electric car to rival the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, will be revealed at an Apple-style product launch akin to the launches of the Model S and Model X.

Production of the Model 3 will begin in 2017, so the car on display will be a pre-production model. Elon Musk recently tweeted that online orders in the US would be taken from April 1, and Tesla stores will be taking orders from March 31.

The Model 3 is expected to have a range of 200-300 miles/320-480 kilometres. Tesla remains tight-lipped on details ahead of the car’s official unveiling, but we expect prices to start at around £35,000/Rs 34.45 lakh when it reaches the UK.

Just as the Tesla Model S has the quickest 0-100kph sprint time of all the cars in its class, the Model 3 is likely to beat performance variants of its competitors, including the 4.1sec time of the BMW M3.

Tesla's vice-president of engineering, Chris Porritt, has already told Autocar UK that little would be carried over from existing Tesla models to the Model 3. Standout features such as the ‘falcon doors’ of the Model X are also likely to have been dropped in order to gain the more accessible price point.