What will Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s Model E mass market vehicle end up looking like? Speculations are already starting to roll in, and the car won’t even be on the market until 2017. This concept is one of the first we have seen, and there may be many more before Tesla finally shows us an official concept.
Tesla Model E concept looks like Model S
Last year, Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said the Model E would definitely look like it is in the same family as the Model S. The automaker said this month that the car would be 80% the size of the Model S and have a 48 kWh battery with a 200-mile range.
This concept from RM.Design, which was picked up by ecomento.com, certainly shows a car like it’s in the family as Tesla’s flagship sedan. Like the Model S, this car is very aesthetically pleasing. It features a smooth appearance, which is what we would expect from Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), which is known for fine-tuning details like aerodynamics. The front of the car looks nearly identical to the Model S, although it is smaller.
Tesla targets mass market
The reason Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has been so fixated on putting out a mass market vehicle is because most people can’t afford the Model S. The Model E is expected to cost less than $40,000, which still puts it on the pricey end of a car, but theoretically, drivers should be able to save on gas money by purchasing the all-electric vehicle. The question which really matters here is how far drivers will have to travel in the vehicle before they make up the price difference between owning the more expensive Tesla vehicle and the gas savings it offers. Of course it depends largely on how much the price of gas has gone up between now and 2017.