• Tesla is releasing the long-awaited $35,000 version of its Model 3 sedan, now available to order on its website.
  • The Model 3 will be the least expensive of the Tesla models, with the most basic version starting at $35,000.
  • We took the Tesla Model 3 for a test drive. The one we drove had a few upgrades, like a glass dome roof and some wooden interior details. It goes for $57,500.

Following is a transcript of the video.

So here we are, Ben and Matt from Business Insider, in the Tesla Model 3. This is the only Tesla we really haven’t driven extensively at this point because it’s so new. We picked it up in Manhattan. We’ve shot over to New Jersey so we can play around with things like Autopilot, which is on now: This is the car driving itself. Very snappy acceleration, pretty good handling.

Just from an enthusiast point of view, it’s not a boring four-door mass-market sedan. It’s exciting. It’s a good-looking car. It is a Tesla, so it has all that brand power, “car of the future.” Very minimalist interior – takes a little bit of getting used to. But it’s striking. I think a lot of people are going to like it. The central touchscreen here controls almost all vehicle functions. So you do need to get used to that. But it’s not going to be unfamiliar to anyone who’s been in a Tesla.

This particular vehicle is $57,500. It’s not the $35,000 entry-level mass-market Tesla that we’ve been talking about: We’re sitting in the upscale version of the car. They’re not even making the cheaper version of this vehicle yet. So we’re getting the best possible impression of the car we can get. We’re getting nice seats. We’re getting a nice leather-wrapped steering wheel. You have the nice open-grain wood here in the front. You have the beautiful, giant, panoramic roof, which doesn’t open.

My immediate reaction is the complete package is very compelling. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than a Model S that might be $100,000 or a Model X SUV that could get up to around $150,000. If you want an electric car that has a lot of range, this car has about 300 miles of range on a charge. If you're just commuting, you'd be able to drive it around quite a bit during the week before you'd have to plug it in.

I think I kind of like the whole package. It has a trunk in the rear end of the car. Then, you've got a the or front trunk in the front. So you actually get some SUV functionality. You can cram a lot of stuff into the car. So you're not really giving up the extra cargo holding ability you would have with a SUV by buying a sedan. This is a lot of fun to drive.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published on February 20, 2018.