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I think the new all-wheel drive Ford Focus RS will run rings around the Tesla Model 3 for the same price. I don\u2019t believe the gasoline engine is the Fifth Horseman of the Climate Apocalypse. I don\u2019t think Uncle Sugar should hand out $7,500 checks to buy electric cars.<\/p>\n
So why did I put down $1,000 to buy a $35,000 electric Model 3 last week?<\/p>\n
Because it\u2019s the most intriguing auto story since the Model T, and Elon Musk is the boldest America auto entrepreneur since Henry Ford. In short, I want to be along for the ride.<\/p>\n
In 1908, Henry Ford introduced his $950 Model T to a customer stampede. \u201cIt was an overnight success,\u201d says Matt Anderson, transportation curator for The Henry Ford museum. \u201cWith a lightweight, steel chassis and sophisticated engine, it was the first good, affordable car.\u201d Sound familiar?<\/p>\n
By 1917, Ford was selling a staggering 785,433 Model Ts a year for $360 a pop, hitting a peak of 1.8 million a year by 1923 at a price of just $260. The Model T single-handedly created a national network of gas stations. It spawned the Rockefeller Standard Oil empire.<\/p>\n
And it buried the battery-powered cars made by competitors. Until now.<\/p>\n
Late Thursday I signed into Teslamotors.com to report on the live webcast of the Model 3\u2019s unveiling. I bypassed a form to reserve my own Model 3. At midnight, Musk introduced the 215-mile-range, $35,000 Model 3 to the world and autodom witnessed something new: Within 24 hours, 180,000 customers had signed up to buy it. It was no April Fool\u2019s joke. By Saturday, that number had climbed to 232,000.<\/p>\n
I talked with fellow auto writer Aaron Gold on the ground in Los Angeles. He said he hadn\u2019t seen anything like the around-the-block lines at Tesla stores since the iPhone\u2019s launch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are simply awestruck by the demand surfacing for the Model 3,\u201d\u00a0wrote one auto analyst.<\/a>\u00a0Even Musk\u00a0admitted<\/a>\u00a0he was surprised.<\/p>\n Saturday afternoon I was back at Teslamotors.com (Michigan, ahem, doesn\u2019t allow Tesla stores) to drop my own grand for fear Tesla would shut down orders. After all, \u201cin May 1909 Ford actually stopped taking new orders,\u201d says Henry Ford\u2019s Anderson, \u201cbecause every car it could build had already been claimed.\u201d<\/p>\n Why would I make a deposit on an untested car? With a featureless face that\u2019s creepier than Voldemort? That I may not get until the end of the decade?<\/p>\n Because I already know what the Model 3 is capable of. It is, after all, the $70,000 Tesla Model S\u2019s \u201cmini-me.\u201d And the Model S is unlike anything on the road (and, based on Tesla design sketches, I suspect that face is going to get more interesting)<\/p>\n The Model S, introduced as a 2012 model, has blown away the luxury car segment. Last year it outsold the iconic BMW 7-series and Mercedes S-Class. The reason is simple \u2014 it\u2019s a high-tech rocketship. I have driven everything from the base 70-kilowatt Model S to the $139,000 P90D in \u201cLudicrous\u201d mode. (The P90D goes from 0-60 mph in a dizzying \u2014 literally, its instant torque briefly unsettles the inner ear \u2014 2.8 seconds.)<\/p>\n The Model 3 is to the Model S what the BMW 3-series is to the 7-series. It has the same DNA in a smaller package. The same aluminum chassis. The same batteries-in-the-floor design, which creates best-in-class passenger space and best-in-class center-of-gravity (for wicked-good handling).<\/p>\n Tesla confirmed my order immediately on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n Musk promises first deliveries by late 2017, though I\u2019m dubious given past delays. Full production at Tesla\u2019s Fremont, California, plant is not slated until 2019. California customers will be first in line with deliveries, which then roll eastward by region.<\/p>\n \u201cReason initial cars are delivered close to factory is to have rapid turnaround on early issues,\u201d Musk tweets (imagine Henry Ford tweeting). And there will be \u201cissues,\u201d no doubt. The Model S has been plagued with quality problems, as might be expected from a startup manufacturer.<\/p>\n The Model 3 is hardly perfect and neither is its maker. Like the controversial Mr. Ford \u2014 who meddled in employees\u2019 private lives and beat up unions \u2014 Mr. Musk\u00a0is famously intemperate<\/a>\u00a0and has disingenuously claimed his cars produce zero emissions (in truth, auto electrification will require a massive expansion of centralized, carbon-powered infrastructure). Auto genius, it seems, breeds eccentrics.<\/p>\n It also breeds underdogs. And like Ford, Musk\u2019s big, risky bets have made him an instant American folk hero.<\/p>\n The wait for my Tesla will be trying, no doubt. Especially since I have a lot of other cool cars on my wish list. Take Mr. Ford\u2019s latest offspring \u2014 the 2017 Focus RS, which I will soon test.<\/p>\n The Focus RS, a $36,605 five-door, AWD hellion will never run out of charge on track days. It will spit snow in Detroit winters and stomp the Model 3 from zero-60 (4.6 seconds vs. a claimed sub-6 for the Tesla). A similarly equipped dual-motor, all-wheel drive Model 3 (like that tested by colleague Gold after the LA launch) will reportedly post an RS-like zero-60 time. But it will likely sticker north of $50,000. What\u2019s more, the Ford\u2019s face is a pet bulldog vs. the Model 3\u2019s blank mug.<\/p>\n With a battery gigafacory still to build and billions in tooling still to assemble, Tesla may see half its buyers defect to the similarly capable Chevrolet Bolt due this fall.<\/p>\n