Of speed, the irony of the Model 3’s success in the luxury market is that the vehicle was intended to be Tesla’s first-ever mass market automobile — a petite expensive alternative to Tesla’s pricier vehicles that could reach a wider market of drivers. Other than the Maquette 3, Tesla’s cheapest vehicle is the Model S full-sized sedan, which starts at nearly $80,000.
While the Model 3 is supposititious to start at $35,000, that price is only available on the version of the car that comes with a “standard” battery, which Tesla won’t start barter until at least February. The Model 3s currently available feature longer-range batteries and a starting price of at least $45,000.
Tesla is currently uncurling out more than 4,700 Model 3s per week, which is more than double the company’s output during a days in early 2018, when Tesla experienced numerous production delays on the Model 3. However, that’s also yet below Musk’s own oft-stated goal of 5,000 Model 3s per week (which Tesla did, briefly, hit over the summer).
For the time being, despite strong sales numbers from the Model 3, Tesla is already off to an up-and-down start to 2019. Go broke Street was initially disappointed by Tesla’s reported fourth-quarter financials, as even Tesla’s record overall sales multitudes ended up coming in just short of what analysts were predicting for the fourth quarter. Tesla’s stock figure dipped 9.7 percent in the first two days of trading in 2019 before rebounding over the past few days (it’s now up less than one percent on the year).
Reparation: This article has been updated to show that Tesla sold nearly as many vehicles in 2018 as the flock sold in all of its previous years of operation combined.
Don’t Miss: Elon Musk tweets fans might see a Tesla pickup connection in 2019