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Elon Musk: Tesla Model 3 Battery Packs Have Roughly 50 and 75 kWh Capacities

Tesla knows how to keep the news mill running, and so even though it has launched the Model 3 and has also made the first deliveries (to company employees, granted), it's still not releasing every information about the new EV.
Tesla Model 3 1 photo
Photo: Tesla Inc.
For instance, it took a keen eye and a snap photo of a window sticker tucked away in the frunk to find out that Tesla's first mass-market product has an EPA-rated efficiency of 126 MPGe (Miles Per Gallon Equivalent), placing it third after the Hyundai Ioniq Electric and the Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid.

But those aren't the only things missing from the Model 3's specs sheet. During the presentation, Musk said that the base version would get a 220-mile maximum range, while the long-rage one would travel an extra 90 miles. However, he was very hush-hush about the actual capacity of the battery packs, sparking immediate speculation.

Rumors that surfaced yesterday claimed the long range version would get an 80 kWh pack based on EPA's certification documents, but more recent reports suggest Musk revealed the capacity of the two iterations of the Model 3 during a conference call hosted by Goldman Sachs.

Citing undisclosed sources that had attended the event, Electrek claims the CEO pointed towards a 75 kWh battery for the long range version and "just over 50 kWh" for the base model.

Musk also made other interesting comments during the same event, implying that a shortage of battery cells might put even more strain on the Model 3 production efforts, which are already strained as they are.

The CEO suggested that the company could incentivize potential customers to buy the base option, which requires one-third fewer cells than the long range one (Tesla can make three base Model 3s with the cells needed for two long range ones).

It's still too early to tell which way demand will go, but Tesla does have an impressive amount of reservations on which it can tailor the public's preferences and prepare accordingly. For now, though, it looks to raise $1.5 billion in debt to fund the expansion of Model 3 production.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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