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)周四表示，甚至在该公司发布其新款电动汽车Model 3原型的前一天，它就已收到逾11.5万份对这款车的预购订单。

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.

特斯拉首席执行官埃隆•马斯克(Elon Musk)在洛杉矶为这款车揭幕的活动中宣布，潜在买家表现出了如潮水般的购买兴趣。尽管这款车要到明年底才开始交货，但马斯克已把到2020年时的销量目标定为50万辆，这一数字将助他实现打造全球首款大众市场电动汽车的雄心。

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.

周四上午，特斯拉开始在全球215家门店接受预订，北美的部分门店前排了两三百人的长队。

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.

瑞士信贷(Credit Suisse)的分析师们估计，有2万人在特斯拉门店交了定金。他们表示，对于一款买家还未亲眼见到的汽车来说，这样的购买兴趣“着实令人震惊”。

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.

在发布这款车的首批原型时，马斯克证实，特斯拉预计会在2017年底实现这款车的生产目标。Model 3是一款入门级豪车，其基本型定价为3.5万美元。

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.

他表示这款车充电一次至少可行驶215英里，并称这一数字只是续航里程下限，该公司预计实际续航里程会超过这一数字。

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.

他还披露，即使是基本型，也能在6秒内将车速从零加速至60英里每小时，另外这款车还配备了变身为自动驾驶汽车所需的各种传感器，并能免费使用特斯拉的超级充电站网络。

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.

去年夏天以来，特斯拉的股价先是回落了54%，接着又在本周四发布会之前的六周里反弹了逾50%。