At 2:30PM AEDT (Sydney time) today, Tesla Motors will live-stream the unveiling of its much-anticipated Model 3 — an “affordable” electric car that hundreds of people in Australia and thousands around the world have already pre-ordered. Here’s how you can watch along with us.
Update: You can now watch the presentation in full — check in here to find it.
Update: Tesla’s Model 3 live-stream is a go, watch it here.
And here’s our live-blog of the Model 3 launch.
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We’re live-blogging the launch — come read with us! — but if you just want to watch the live-stream, you can do so on Tesla.com or the Tesla Motors Australian website from 2:15PM AEDT.
We’ll let you know when the stream is live. Tesla hasn’t been especially punctual with its events before, so be prepared to spend a few hours sitting at your PC this afternoon.
P.S if you’re already convinced that the Model 3 is the electric car for you, you can put your money down online. At 1:30PM AEDT, Tesla is opening up online pre-orders on its Australian website — an hour ahead of the live-blog, to reduce server load.
And, to pass the time, here’s a short history of Tesla Motors:
Before we give you a look into what we’ve been working on this Friday, let’s take a look at what Tesla has already achieved in its short history.
In 2008, Tesla introduced, the Roadster, a high performance electric sports car which showed the potential of electric vehicles to the world. The Roadster, the first highway capable production electric car, was capable of achieving 320 km of range and able to beat a petrol sports car like a Porsche or Ferrari in a head to head showdown.
In 2012, Tesla delivered the world’s first premium electric sedan, Model S. Four years later, Model S continues to make an impact on the automotive industry and wow customers. Model S is the safest production car on the road, the fastest accelerating four door car in the world, the first fully electric all-wheel drive production car, and the highest rated car ever tested by Consumer Reports.
In 2015, Tesla’s customers took delivery of the first Model X. Like the Tesla vehicles that come before it, Model X is breaking the mold in its category. Model X is the safest and quickest all-electric SUV. It is the longest-range all-electric SUV ever, it has the lowest center of gravity and the lowest drag coefficient of any SUV, ever.
With over 100,000 Model S on the road worldwide, Tesla’s owners have traveled nearly 2 billion electric miles.
Additionally, Tesla’s Autopilot system is the most advanced driving assistance system available. Autopilot is designed for safety and convenience and is building towards an autonomous future. Tesla is able to add new Autopilot features and keep Tesla owners at the forefront of technology through over-the-air software updates.
As Tesla prepares to put more vehicles on the road, it continues to build out its after-service network worldwide with over 200 sales and service locations and 80 more opening this year. Tesla also continues to expand it’s charging solutions through its Supercharger network and Destination Charging which allow owners to conveniently charge wherever they’re traveling. There are now more than 600 Supercharger stations worldwide with an additional 300 locations coming this year.
To achieve its goal to offer an affordably priced mid-size sedan, Tesla has undertaken the construction of one of the biggest buildings on earth. The Tesla Gigafactory was born of necessity and will supply enough batteries to support Tesla’s projected vehicle demand. By 2020, the Gigafactory will reach full capacity and produce more lithium ion batteries annually than were produced worldwide in 2013.
Tesla’s objective to produce 500,000 vehicles by 2020 means that production must increase to a factor of 10. It showed in the past that it was capable of overcoming such a challenge with the Tesla Factory in California, one of the most advanced automotive factories. In 2012, Tesla produced around 3,100 cars. Last year, it manufactured 16 times more, over 50,000 cars.
On Friday afternoon, Australia time, Tesla will unveil Model 3. Deliveries will start by the end of 2017 in the USA, with other markets to follow after. Australian customers will have a chance to reserve a Model 3 prior to the unveil from 8am on the 31st March in selected stores.
Tesla is also opening up Tesla Model 3, S and X pre-orders and deliveries to New Zealand.