The blog is dedicated to the Tesla Automobile range of cars and what they are doing in the automotive market both here in Australia and around the world. The Range currently offers just 3 cars – the Model S that’s been around since 2012 in the USA and 2014 in Australia, the Model X that’s been around since 2015 in the USA and deliveries will commence in Q1 2017 in Australia.
The last Model to be released is the mass market offering called the Model 3. Its currently in the final stages of products development and tooling up to, hopefully, begin production in the USA in mid to late 2017. The current situation is that there are hundreds of thousand of reservations, or pre-orders, for this model and Elon has stated that the first years production will be concentrating on the US market then proceed with other markets and a RHD version.
As at th time of writing this post, the timeframe is yet to be confirmed along with the final specifications for the Model 3, its features, options and pricing structure for both the car and it accessories.
If I were to take a punt on a time frame for the first deliveries to arrive in Australia, I would say Q3/4 2018 as being a bit of a stretch with a more likely date of Q1/2 2019. Based on the fact that Tesla have previously missed all key dates for the Model S and X don’t be surprised if that date slips back to even early 2020. I stand corrected and would be the first to congratulate Tesla in they beat those dates as they are gearing up to increase production to around 500,000 cars a year. That should see the back log of orders cleared quickly, however again based on history Tesla are yet to achieve th production targets for both the Model S and X.
I am more of a glass half full kinda of guy and I am confident that Tesla will be able to ramp up their production but not necessarily in the time frame mentioned. The gigafactory id coming on line with production improving there as well.