特斯拉發佈Model 3瞄準大衆市場

Tesla received more than 115,000 pre-orders for its next electric vehicle, the Model 3, the day before it even unveiled a prototype of the car, the company said on Thursday.

特斯拉(Tesla)週四表示，甚至在該公司發佈其新款電動汽車Model 3原型的前一天，它就已收到逾11.5萬份對這款車的預購訂單。

Elon Musk, chief executive, announced the flood of interest from potential buyers at an event in Los Angeles where he took the wraps off the car. Although deliveries are not due to start until late next year, Mr Musk has targeted sales of 500,000 by 2020, a figure that would fulfil his ambition of creating the world’s first mass-market electric vehicle.

特斯拉首席執行官埃隆•馬斯克(Elon Musk)在洛杉磯爲這款車揭幕的活動中宣佈，潛在買家表現出瞭如潮水般的購買興趣。儘管這款車要到明年底纔開始交貨，但馬斯克已把到2020年時的銷量目標定爲50萬輛，這一數字將助他實現打造全球首款大衆市場電動汽車的雄心。

Tesla began taking pre-orders in its 215 stores around the world on Thursday morning, causing lines 200-300 people long in some North American locations.

週四上午，特斯拉開始在全球215家門店接受預訂，北美的部分門店前排了兩三百人的長隊。

Analysts at Credit Suisse had estimated that 20,000 people put down deposits in Tesla stores, a level of interest they described as “really astounding” for a vehicle the buyers hadn’t seen.

瑞士信貸(Credit Suisse)的分析師們估計，有2萬人在特斯拉門店交了定金。他們表示，對於一款買家還未親眼見到的汽車來說，這樣的購買興趣“着實令人震驚”。

Unveiling the first prototypes of the car, designed as a starter luxury vehicle and priced at $35,000 for the base model, Mr Musk confirmed that Tesla expected to hit its production target of late 2017 for the vehicle.

在發佈這款車的首批原型時，馬斯克證實，特斯拉預計會在2017年底實現這款車的生產目標。Model 3是一款入門級豪車，其基本型定價爲3.5萬美元。

The new car will have a range of at least 215 miles on a single charge, he said, describing that figure as a minimum that the company expected to exceed.

他表示這款車充電一次至少可行駛215英里，並稱這一數字只是續航里程下限，該公司預計實際續航里程會超過這一數字。

He revealed that even the base model would accelerate from 0-60mph in less than six seconds, come with the sensors needed to turn it into an autonomous vehicle, and have free access to the company’s network of supercharging stations.

他還披露，即使是基本型，也能在6秒內將車速從零加速至60英里每小時，另外這款車還配備了變身爲自動駕駛汽車所需的各種傳感器，並能免費使用特斯拉的超級充電站網絡。

Tesla’s shares had fallen back 54 per cent since last summer, before rebounding by more than 50 per cent in the six-week run-up to Thursday’s unveiling.

去年夏天以來，特斯拉的股價先是回落了54%，接着又在本週四發佈會之前的六週裏反彈了逾50%。