Tesla Motors, the electric car wing of Elon Musks's empire, announced that it's planning to introduce an affordable sedan expected to compete with the Audi A4 and BMW 3 Series.
The car, tentatively named Gen 3 is scheduled to be released in three to four years, and will allegedly cost around $30,000. That's a much more affordable price than Tesla's popular Model S sedan, which comes in at $60,000, even after a $7,500 federal tax credit. Creating an affordable electric vehicle will go a long way to boost the adoption of the electric vehicles among middle class consumers.
"What the world really needs is a great, affordable electric car," Musk said, in an interview with Bloomberg. "I'm not going to let anything go, no matter what people offer, until I complete that mission."
Gen 3 is expected to share many of the same features as the Model X, another high-end Tesla vehicle set to hit the road in late 2014. According to Motor Authority, those features include the characteristic gull-wing doors - which Tesla calls Falcon Wings - but with a smaller and more sedan-like appearance than the CUV Model X. According to Bloomberg, Musk claims that Gen 3 will be capable of driving 200 miles on a fully charged battery
Like Tesla's Model S, both the Model X and Gen 3 will be entirely electric, powered by lithium-ion batteries and electric motors. To accommodate for their expanding electric car product line, Tesla is building more ‘Supercharger stations' - the electric car equivalent of a gas station. These charging ports will allegedly be capable of bringing a vehicle to half-charge in 20 minutes. By the end of June the company expects to have 25 stations up and running in multiple cities, a significant boost to the current eight (one in Connecticut, one in Delaware and six in California) in existence. Musk said his company plans to build 100 stations within the next year, and eventually have 200 stations set up across the country.
The electric car company reported its first quarterly profit this May and recently paid back its government loans of $450 million - nine years early. The success of the Model S around the world and excitement over new products and technological advances have skyrocketed Tesla's shares to $110, over six times the initial public offering in 2010 and 110 times the 2014 estimate.
