(Reuters) Tesla Motors announced Tuesday its plans to release a new all-electric car called the Model 3.
A report, which was confirmed by the electric car maker, stated that the new vehicle would be 20 percent smaller than the Model S, and would be able to go over 200 miles on a single charge, according to The Verge.
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla, said in an interview that the name for the Model 3 came from a legal conflict Tesla had with Ford Motor Co. after the car maker threatened to sue Tesla over a trademark for "Model E."
"We were going to call it Model E for a while and then Ford sued us saying it wanted to use the Model E- I thought this is crazy, Ford's trying to kill sex! So we'll have to think of another name," Musk said. "The new model is going to be called Model III, we'll have three bars to represent it and it'll be S III X!"
Before customers can get their hands on the Model 3, Tesla is looking to sell its all-electric Model S SUV, CNET reported.
"We can confirm that the next vehicle Tesla will produce after Model X will be a mass-market electric car known as Model 3," a spokesperson for Tesla said. "We don't have any more details to share at this point. Our focus continues to be on Model S and preparing for the introduction of Model X."
The Model 3 is scheduled to be unveiled in 2016 and made available to customers in 2017, Auto Express reported.
The confirmation of the new car follows Musks announcement on a trip to the U.K. that he is looking to build a research and development base in the country.
Some details about the Model 3, such as the 200 mile range and 20 percent size difference, were revealed by Musk in a discussion back in March, The Verge reported. Chris Porritt, vice president of engineering at Tesla, said in an interview earlier this month that the new car would be based on a new platform rather than the aluminum platform used for the Model S, adding that the car maker was planning to use cheaper battery technologies so it could bring down costs of making the car.
The batteries would be produced by Tesla's upcoming Gigafactory, which will make batteries for all of the company's cars and will include a stationary storage program for storing energy from solar and wind farms, Auto Express reported. Tesla is looking at several states to be the location of the new Gigafactory, which include Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California.
