Tesla Model 3 and 15 other new luxury cars and SUVs that will shake up 2018

Having done their best to give splashy introductions to new models, carmakers now have to hold their breath to see whether the new cars, trucks and SUVs prove popular with the public.

In 2018, they’ll have a bevy of new models, skewing heavily to pickups and SUVs that have been favourites this year. Veteran car executives know that the industry’s history is an unpredictable mix of hits and duds.

The most noticeable introductions will come at the opposite ends of the spectrum: two of the best-known pickup trucks and the new mass-market electric car from Tesla. The pickup wars will be especially vicious.

“You can’t ignore a big truck,” says Jessica Caldwell, analyst for Edmunds.com, the car-buying website. “Any time there’s a truck, it’s a big deal.”

She thinks Tesla’s new Model 3, priced at US$35,000 before incentives, which is roughly half the cost of the brand’s existing luxury sedan and SUV, could finally bring electric cars to the masses.

“If they do 20,000 [deliveries to customers] a month, that is going to change the landscape,” Caldwell says. By the end of 2018, the Model 3 could power electric-car sales to the point that they pass gas-electric hybrids for the first time.

Here is a list of some of the most important models coming to showrooms in 2018:

Tesla Model 3

All eyes will be on the Model 3, the test of whether the Silicon Valley carmaker can attract drivers from their gasoline-powered cars and into a futuristic vehicle. A few are already on the road, mostly in the hands of Tesla employees. Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the car is running late because it’s in “production hell”. The real question is whether the 400,000 admirers who paid US$1,000 reservations will still be there when more roll off the assembly line.