The long-awaited first Tesla Model 3 electric car for the public is finally rolling off the assembly line pending a "final checkout".
"Production Unit 1 of Model 3 is now built and going through final checkout," Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday and unveiled the pictures of an actual Model 3.
The first car to be rolled out will belong to Musk.
Tesla has been working on a limited production run of the Model 3 electric car. The first 30 new cars are expected to be delivered to customers on July 28.
In several Twitter posts, Musk said the California-based company will produce 100 cars in August and more than 1,500 in September.
It looks like "we can reach 20,000 Model 3 cars per month in December", Musk said.
Model 3 is a major step for Tesla, and will be priced around $35,000. It "achieves 215 miles (346 km) of range per charge" and is "designed to attain the highest safety ratings in every category".
There are over 370,000 pending reservations for a Model 3, according to Tesla's latest public figures.
Analysts say that the car could help jump-start the spread of pure-electric vehicles in the United States, but only if the company is successful at keeping its factory running at top speed.
Production issue have been slowing down the roll out of its Model 3 and this has led to concerns over Tesla’s ability to keep up with demand.
According to a Bloomberg report, Tesla plans to hand over the keys to 30 cars at a launch celebration on July 28.
The plan is to then build 100 cars—less than three a day—for the month of August, according to a series of Twitter posts by Musk last week.
September will see another 1,500 cars being made, and the ramp will build to a rate of 20,000 cars a month by December, Musk said. It’s an aggressive schedule that will more than double Tesla’s total production rate in six months, and then quintuple it by the end of next year.
(With IANS Inputs)