The future is here, and it is bright

After ten years of waiting, Tesla has revealed Model 3, the vehicle that CEO Elon Musk hopes will take the electric car to the masses

Ten years is a decade, it’s a long to time to kill and a short time to get something done. It’s a moment if you are in rush and a lifetime, if you want to give it meaning. The ten years of Tesla went something like that, and finally the dream of CEO Elon Musk, the Edison of this generation, has been fulfilled, the commoner’s Model 3 is born, and an electric car for the masses is here.

Years from now, people will look back at the unveiling of the Model 3 as a watershed moment not only for Tesla Motors, but for the entire auto industry. Within 24 hours of launching its first lower-price electric car, Tesla locked in a large base of paid reservations directly from retail buyers, not dealers, for the model.

Tesla has vowed it fidelity to the American Dream. Aside from Ford and GM, Tesla is one of the few American car companies to go public, and their stock has gone through the roof (and continues to do so).At the unveiling of the Model 3 at the company's design studio in Hawthorne, California, Musk said the car will deliver at least 215 miles of range beginning at just $35,000 — that's a bold claim, and an important one for Tesla to meet.

Musk is "fairly confident" that deliveries will begin by the end of 2017, and "you will not be able to buy a better car for $35,000 (Rs 21 lakh approx), even with no options." And it will be one of the safest cars in the world, according to Musk.The base car will do 0-60 mph in less than 6 seconds, with versions that go "much faster." Range will be at least 215 miles, but Tesla hopes to exceed those numbers in the final car. All Model 3 cars will include support for Tesla's high-speed Supercharging network, because "it's about going where you want to go," according to Musk.

By the end of 2017, when the Model 3 launches, Tesla says it will have a total of 7,200 Superchargers, double the number available today. Like the Model S, the Model 3 will come in both rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive versions, and there's a 15-inch landscape touchscreen inside — an interesting change from the 17-inch portrait touchscreen in the Model S and X. Autopilot hardware is standard, and all safety features will be active automatically. Five adults will fit comfortably — "comfortably is the important part here," Musk said.

Musk added that the company received 198,000 Model 3 orders in 24 hours. In a tweet Friday, he touted a "bright" future for electric cars. "Recommend ordering soon, as the wait time is growing rapidly," Musk said. "We are simply awestruck by the demand surfacing for the Model 3," wrote Stifel auto analyst James Albertine. "We had no idea the reservation orders would be this strong."

Tesla shares were trading about three percent higher Friday afternoon. The trading volume in the stock more than doubled its 30-day average. According to one Carnegie Mellon professor, the Model 3 may have sold more units in one day than the entire US plug-in auto industry in 2015. “About 116,000 plug-in cars were sold in the US in all of 2015. Tesla just pre-sold 180,000 Model 3 EVs in 24 hrs,” he tweeted.

In scenes more commonly associated with smartphone launches than those of vehicles, hundreds of people queued outside Tesla stores in the US to try to secure one of the first Model 3s. They had to pay a $1,000 deposit to reserve the car before they had even seen it. The company also began taking online orders an hour before its press event had begun.
Maybe, that is how a revolution begins.

And for other world markets, like India, the people at Tesla motors should know the fact that Indians absolutely love the Model S and are more than willing to buy it rather than a gas guzzler.