As promised earlier this week, production of Tesla Model 3 #1 is now complete, marking the start of a new era in semi-affordable electric cars.

As June came to an end, Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised there'd be Model 3 news, then this past Sunday announced that the first Model 3 was expected to be completed on Friday, July 7th.

And while we stayed up late on Friday to hear that confirmation, it never came. Did it happen or not? That was question.

Today we got our answer, and the first Tesla Model 3 has been built!

Production unit 1 of Model 3 is now built and going through final checkout. Pics soon. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2017

Another look at Tesla Model 3 001 - with what appears to be 19" wheels

You can see some of those shots released so far above (out in front of Tesla's Fremont factory).

Late Saturday night, Musk was asked who would get the first 3? To which the CEO stated that it is whoever puts down the first deposit. Which in this case, was not Musk.

It's who is first to pay full price for the car. Hard rule. I have first Roadster and X, but not first S. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2017

....however, Model 3 #0001 was apparently gifted back to the CEO for his 46th birthday. So Musk now has 3 of the first 4 models built by Tesla.

Ira Ehrenpreis had rights to 1st car as he was 1st to place a full deposit, but gave those rights to me as my 46th bday present. Tks Ira! — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2017

Now that "job 1" is out of the way, Musk says Tesla is planning a "handover party for (the) first 30 customer Model 3's on the 28th". From there, future deliveries in "Aug(ust) should be 100 cars and Sept above 1500", before reaching a production run of 20,000 in December.

As for the first Tesla Model S which isn't in the CEO's collection, that went to Tesla board member Steve Jurvetson, who famously whipped out his wallet at an early Tesla board meeting and filled out a cheque for the first Model S sight unseen, to which Musk stated "Well, I guess you get the first car.”

First Model S Delivery -- "TSLA S1" went to Steve Jurvetson

Of course we will have more pics of the first Model 3 off the line once they are available via Tesla!

Update: Some pictures taken (Imgur/Reddit via Nan Lin on Facebook) of the Model 3 heading out for the Tesla promo shot above (in color)