American motor company Tesla has unveiled its new electric car which it hopes will compete with the BMW 3-Series.
Called the Model III, the vehicle is set to be released in 2017 and represents a more affordable version of its previous electric vehicles, with the new model set to cost around £30,000.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who confirmed the car will have a range of around 200 miles, told Auto Express that the Model III will be around 20% smaller than the previous release, the Model S.
Musk, who also co-founded SpaceX and PayPal, said he had originally wanted to call the vehicle the Model E, but was met with resistance by Ford, which wanted the name for itself.
“We were going to call it model E for a while and then Ford sued us saying it wanted to use the Model E,” he said, adding he’d wanted to call it E so all three upcoming Tesla releases would be an anagram for “Sex.”
“I thought this is crazy, Ford’s trying to kill sex! So we’ll have to think of another name,” he added.
The Model X SUV will be the first vehicle released in 2015, followed by the mid-sized Sedan in 2016.
The company is also being courted by five different states to host its manufacturing plant, with plans to sell 35,000 vehicles in its first year in the USA.
