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posted by takyon on Friday March 01 2019, @01:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the self-buying-cars dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Tesla announces $35,000 Model 3, is closing its stores to pay for it

On Thursday afternoon, Tesla announced that it's finally ready to start selling the cheapest versions of its Model 3 electric vehicle. For $35,000—before any federal or local tax incentives—you can now order a rear-wheel drive Model 3 Standard Range. This car gets black paint and the as-yet unseen standard interior, which means manual (not power assisted) seat and steering adjustment, cloth trim, and a stripped-down audio system. Tesla says the cheapest Model 3 will have 220 miles of range, will hit 60mph (96km/h) in 5.6 seconds before topping out at 130mph (209km/h).

[...] However, these new, cheaper Teslas come at a cost. Tesla also announced that it is now moving to an entirely online sales model and will be shuttering most of its retail locations in the US. "Going to online only is incredibly helpful to us; in many parts of the US, we're unable to sell cars because of franchise laws. This substantially opens up our ability to buy cars. It's 2019—people want to buy stuff online," Musk said.

That means job losses. "There's no other way for us to achieve the savings required to produce this car and still remain profitable. There's no way around it," Musk said. However, when asked about the number or timing of job losses, Musk would not be drawn into details and dismissed the question as "not today's topic."

Tesla announcement.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 01 2019, @02:59AM (7 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday March 01 2019, @02:59AM (#808536) Journal

    https://electrek.co/2018/06/08/tesla-model-3-body-line/ [electrek.co]

    The robots are going to derka durr.... again.

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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday March 01 2019, @04:14AM (6 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday March 01 2019, @04:14AM (#808561) Homepage Journal

    Someone posted here about that. They tried to use the same machines to fabricate steel parts as had been previously employed for aluminum or maybe the other way round.

    When you withdraw the tool from the stamped part, it springs back towards the flat just a little bit; steel and aluminum do that in different ways, so they had to retool everything.

    Surely mechanical engineers know all about that? How could Tesla have possibly committed such a huge mistake?

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    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @05:59AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @05:59AM (#808587)

      Saying "no" costs the business money in the short term and makes you a Debbie Downer; saying "yes" makes the business money in the short term and makes you a Team Player.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @06:15AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @06:15AM (#808590)

      the machinists probably knew it, but because they're not Engineers!, no one would listen to them. So, being like most people, they quickly learn it's easier to do the work that the more learned ones ask (tell) them to and ask no questions.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Nuke on Friday March 01 2019, @10:31AM

      by Nuke (3162) on Friday March 01 2019, @10:31AM (#808626)

      Surely mechanical engineers know all about that? How could Tesla have possibly committed such a huge mistake?

      Because Musk has the power to over-rule the laws of physics. Perhaps he was distracted by hyping Hyperloop of something on this occasion.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 01 2019, @11:35AM (2 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 01 2019, @11:35AM (#808639) Journal

      When you withdraw the tool from the stamped part, it springs back towards the flat just a little bit; steel and aluminum do that in different ways, so they had to retool everything. [...] How could Tesla have possibly committed such a huge mistake?

      What was the mistake? How can you find out if you need to retool everything, if you don't try to figure it out?

      • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday March 01 2019, @01:13PM (1 child)

        by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday March 01 2019, @01:13PM (#808654) Homepage Journal

        By building a _complete_ car with all the production-quality tools.

        Just _one_ car.

        That's actually done by damn near _every_ manufacturing company that doesn't stink of Musk.

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        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 01 2019, @06:13PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 01 2019, @06:13PM (#808816) Journal

          By building a _complete_ car with all the production-quality tools.

          Sounds like they didn't get that far before they found it wouldn't work so. I guess I'm not seeing the evidence that they spent more time and resources on this than if they had done the above.