(Nicholas Eckhart)
While it’s currently uncommon to spot a Tesla in the wild, the electric car company said today that it believes there could be significantly more Teslas – of varying model types – dotting roadways around the world by 2020, indicating its upcoming Model 3 will be targeted for mass market consumption.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Tesla executives shed light on the carmaker’s future plans by revealing that it anticipates having one million cars on the road by 2020, a mark that will likely be boosted by the fact that the company’s next edition will probably include a family of vehicles: a sedan and a crossover.
JB Straubel, chief technology officer for Tesla, detailed the company’s intents saying the currently in-development third-generation vehicles should hit the market in 2017 and cost about $35,000.
While Tesla didn’t offer many other details on the new model – other than it will come with at least 200 miles of battery range – Straubel did hint that the company has plans beyond the Model 3 crossover and sedan, the WSJ reports.
Tesla first revealed components of the Model 3 portfolio back in July 2014, when CEO Elon Musk described the upcoming vehicle as a smaller, less expensive version of the Model S.
Musk, who only referenced one vehicle at the time, said the car was originally going to be called the Model E, but Ford threw a wrench into those plans.
During the conference on Monday, Straubel also reiterated Musk’s estimate that the company will be selling more than 500,000 vehicles annually by 2020, paving the way for more than one million Teslas on the road by the start of the next decade.
Tesla’s Mass-Market Portfolio to Include Sedan, Crossover [The Wall Street Journal]
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist