The world’s first Tesla Model 3 has rolled off the production line – and Tesla chief Elon Musk himself is the lucky owner of the historic electric car.
This isn’t the company boss pulling rank, either: a customer called Ira Ehrenpreis actually had rights to the first Model 3, but then passed them on to Musk for his 46th birthday present. “Tks Ira!” said Musk.
Tesla has a hard rule, says Musk: the first car always goes to the first person to pay full price for it. “I have [the] first Roadster and [Model] X, but not first S,” he tweeted.
Angel investor Jason Calacanis owns the first Model S, and later jokingly tweeted to offer Musk the inaugural S:
You can have S back :-)
— jason (@Jason) July 9, 2017
Now it’s been built, the first Model 3 is going through final quality control checks, later to be joined by 29 other first-run Model 3s. They will be handed over to their new owners in a special ceremony planned for 28 July.
Tesla’s highest-volume car yet, 500,000 preorders have already been placed for the Model 3: buyers in the UK can put down a £1000 deposit to secure their place in the queue.
In order to meet them, Tesla is going to ramp up production quickly: by the end of the year, Musk is targeting an assembly rate of 10,000 Model 3 a week.