Tesla’s Next Car to Compete with BMW 3-Series

July 24th, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

Tesla is rolling out the Model S now, and its upcoming SUV, the Model X, is sold out. Now, it has revealed its next car! And its ambitions as an EV leader don’t seem to have slowed down at all, with it now looking to create a car that competes with the BMW 3-series. Here are the details from Chris DeMorro of Gas2:

Tesla’s Next Car: An Electric BMW 3-Series Fighter (via Gas 2.0)

Unlike many other also-rans, Tesla Motors is succeeding where other electric car companies have failed. And by succeeding, we mean Tesla is actually selling cars, with the Model S sedan reportedly receiving over 10,000 $5,000 deposits to date. At $50,000 after tax credits though, the Model S is still…

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Tags: BMW, quickies, Tesla

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

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Nicolas Zart

It’s funny I remember talking to some of them and hearing they would do a beefier Roadster. It would be like a remake of the Roadster but with four seats. We’ll see but nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how far they will go.
- Bob_Wallace
  
  I believe Tesla is making a new roadster. They just aren’t making a big deal out of it.
  
  2012 Roadster 2.5
  
  http://www.leftlanenews.com/new-car-buying/tesla/roadster/
  - RobS
    
    That’s just a model update of the original roadster, a few performance tweaks, what Nick is referring too is reports that their next offering after the model s and x will be a range of slightly smaller chassied vehicles including a sedan they will be aiming ~$30,000 but also possibly a new convertible roadster in homage to their beginnings. Being based on a lotus chassis the roadster was always likely to be a limited run vehicle at the whims of another manufacturers production. But a ground up Tesla designed Roadster is an exciting possibility, given the performance they have been able to eek out of the Model S, a similar approach to a new Roadster a few years down the track with improved batteries is tantalising.
    - Bob_Wallace
      
      It is, but (IIRC) it’s in response to continued demand for the Roadster. I believe Tesla had announced that they were going to discontinue the Roadster but came out with the 2.5 when people were still asking for the two-seater sportscar version.
      
      The original plan was to open with the Roadster. Then make a luxury model. And then a more affordable model. The SUV was stuck into the mix later and the Roadster kept alive.
      
      Perhaps a ‘from the ground up’ two seater will appear. But I expect more emphasis will be on higher volume models.
      
      Going to be very interesting to see if Tesla develops into a major car manufacturing or gets merged into Toyota. I can see a very successful merging if the Tesla people get to do the design and Toyota takes over volume production.