What he wanted the journalists to know: “We put
a lot of effort into designing the car. I don’t think you can find a
better looking car at this price point,” he said. (And later as we saw
the car from the inside out, except for the peculiar aspects of its
front end, we had to agree.) He said that there are 10,000 unique
components in the cars and that its has eight cameras and 12 ultrasonic
sensors.
The standard car will be sold for $35,000 and has a 0 to
60 mph of of 5.6 seconds and a range of 220 miles. The long range
version will be sold for $44,000, has a range of 310 miles and a 0 to 60
time of 5.1 seconds. While today there are 6,124 superchargers by the
end of next year there will be 15,000 superchargers. Like the Model S
and Model X before it, he also said the Model 3 will eventually be
capable of full autonomy. Ultimately, people will be able to get their
cars serviced without ever leaving their home.
What seemed to cause him angst: the hellish aspects of
manufacturing. He referenced a chart that showed an S-Curve, and kept
referring to this curve throughout his remarks. “It’s an amazing car,
but we’re going through six months of manufacturing hell. It’s going to
be pretty great, but it’s going to be quite a challenge to build this
car,” he said. “Floods, fires, tornadoes, ships sink, if anything
interrupts supply chains, that will interrupt the production.’
Yet, he sounded characteristically resolute in his
promise to achieve his ambitious goals. “We have simplified the
manufacturing process dramatically. In the same amount of space to build
50,000 cars, we can build 250,000 Model 3s.”
What he didn’t want to talk much about: When will
customers get their Model 3s. He was vague about the number of
reservations. “One question in particular is showing up in my Twitter
feed a lot, quite a lot a lot,” he said. Citing the fact that the
company doesn’t have a true marketing arm, he said “We do everything we
can to unsell the car.”
One writer asked him how he was feeling, on such a big
day for Tesla. “I’ll be more pepped up this evening. Sorry for being a
little dry. Got a lot on my mind right now.”
At that moment he paused and seemed to take in the weight
of the moment. “This is a great day for Tesla. It’s the thing we’ve
been working towards. The whole point of Tesla was to make a great
affordable electric car. It was never our goal to make expensive cars,
we didn’t want to make a car that no one could buy,” he said. “If you’re
trying to make a difference in the world, you’ve got to make cars
people can afford.”
After answering a handful of questions, he left the
stage, punching away already at the digits on his phone. His employees
slipped out of the silver door behind him. Elon Musk had already moved
on to the next thing. He had a big night ahead.
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