Today at 9 p.m. Pacific (11 p.m. Eastern), Elon Musk showcased the final reveal of the Tesla Model 3. We saw the first 30 cars delivered to their owners. But when can you start configuring your own? And what kind of changes can you make?
Here are the Model 3s as they were revealed:
Tesla
But during his speech, Elon didn’t specifically address configuration and colors. This was later shared in an FAQ section for the Model 3.
According to Tesla, you can click here to find your estimated Model 3 delivery date. This directs you to your MyTesla page, which will be showing estimated delivery dates soon. When your car is ready to be configured, you’ll receive an invitation at the same email you used to place your reservation. (You can confirm your email here.) Invitations will be sent based on whether you’re an employee, if you own a Tesla, if production has started in your country, and the date and time you placed your reservation.
So the earlier in line your reservation is, the sooner you’ll get a link to start configuring your car.
This image of an early version of the invitation was shared on Reddit by Vberber:
Reddit/Vberber
You can expect to get something like that in your email when it’s time for you to configure your car.
But note that these configurator invites may take a little longer than you’ll be wanting to wait. On a Reddit thread here, one Redditor (_some_guy) who ordered a Tesla on March 31 noted that his online order changed to say April 1. He called customer service, who said the order still showed as 3/31 on their end. However, Tesla customer service informed him that employees on the west and east coast will get their cars first, then California, and then Oregon. Since he ordered from Oregon, he may not receive an invitation to configure his Model 3 until early 2018.
(Note: If you’re concerned about the date on your invitation being wrong, just call customer service. Many people’s invitations showed that they were bumped back a day, but it was just a temporary glitch.)
In order to allow for rapid production, Musk has said that Tesla had to keep initial configurations for the Model 3 very simple. That was a mistake they made with the Model X that they’re not repeating: “[The] Model X … has way too many cool things in it that should have been rolled in with Version 2, Version 3…”
We’ve always known that the configurator would be released online shortly after the first production models were delivered. During a Tesla shareholder meeting in June, Musk addressed this very question.
We expect that the configurator to go live towards the end of next month [July] when we deliver the first production Model 3. So yes, we are definitely on track to deliver the first production Model 3 next month.”
As far as what configuration options will be available to you, we finally know. The first available configuration will be a $49,000 model with a long-range battery, rear-wheel drive, and premium upgrades, plus customizations for wheel size, exterior color, and autopilot.
By November 2017, configurations for $35,000 Model 3s with standard equipment should be available. Shipping will begin with the long-range models in late October, and standard models will follow.
If you get an invitation and aren’t ready to buy your car yet, you can hold your place in line instead of configuring your model, and wait to order later. Invitations will continue to be sent on a rolling basis.
We just don’t know exactly when the first online configurators will pop up. If you see one, let us know in the comments below.
