by Henry Wong

“Why are we making electric cars?” founder of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk asked at Tesla’s March 31 event. His response, simply put, was because there are record-high carbon dioxide levels and with combustion engines in most cars, they are spewing tons of harmful gases. Musk then went on to explain the “Secret Master Plan” which is the mission statement of Tesla to build a more environmentally friendly car. This mission first took the form of the Roadster, then the Model S, X, and finally the Model 3 – the car that was the subject of the event.

In the week since the Tesla Model 3 was introduced to the world there have already been 325,000 pre-orders – twice as many as expected. A $1000 down payment is required to reserve the affordable $35,000 car. Assuming no one reneges on their reservation, Tesla has already made a profit of $325 million and the projected revenue from future sales is estimated to reach $14 billion. All in all, the company says the car’s release in late 2017 to the public will generate enough money to be “the biggest one-week launch of any product ever.”