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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that his company's "mass market sedan", the Model 3, can be pre-ordered in March 2016 for $35,000. The cars will not be available until 2017 at the earliest. From CNBC:
What's taking so long, you ask? Right now, the batteries that would power the Model 3 would cost about as much as the car is slated to. Tesla is building an enormous lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in Nevada to make its own batteries for far less money — the "Gigafactory" mentioned in Musk's tweet.
Not much more can be revealed about the Model 3 except that, as Musk mentioned cryptically during a Q&A session on Reddit, "It won't look like other cars." What does that mean, exactly? We'll find out in March.
In the meantime, you can order yourself a new Model X — if you have the cash. The entry level model will cost around $5,000 more than a Model S with the same options, Musk wrote in yet another tweet — though you can easily spend well into the six figure range for the "Signature" high-end series.
Tesla customers will begin receiving their Model X "all-electric SUVs" beginning on Sept. 29.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RedBear on Friday September 04 2015, @10:44AM
That seems a bit of an overstatement. The battery pack for the Model S has already gone down from $12,000 to around $8,500, from what I've heard, and that's for an 85kWh battery pack. It's been estimated in a very thorough analysis written by one Randy Carlson on SeekingAlpha.com* that the base Model 3 will get about 220 miles of range from a 44kWh battery pack (smaller, lighter vehicle). Theoretically a pack that size would only cost around $5,000 even if they built it right now. The Gigafactory will supposedly bring battery costs down by about 30%. They're only waiting because they plan to make ten times as many Model 3s as they do S/X, and they need to get the costs down as low as possible.
It's pretty crazy how half the world and the entire automotive market is waiting breathlessly to see what the Model 3 will even look like. By all indications there are already hundreds of thousands of people who are completely disregarding all other vehicles on the market, both EVs and ICEs, while they wait for the Model 3 to finally become available. It will be interesting to see how well the direct competitors like the upcoming all-electric Chevy Bolt will do in the market. And the true second-generation Nissan Leaf with greater range, that's also supposed to be coming in 2017/2018.
.
* I read the entire very long and technically well grounded Randy Carlson article on a single page when someone linked me to it 3 weeks ago, but now it's been split into 10 pages and the site wants you to log in before getting past page 1. WTF? Anyway, if you're really interested here's the link: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3258855-will-teslas-model-3-compete [seekingalpha.com]
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 2) by mmcmonster on Friday September 04 2015, @10:56AM
That link's up to 17 pages now!
I love how it has near the beginning: Tesla Motors has a secret plan, first secretly announced back in 2006.
I'm not sure that the word secret means what he thinks it means.
2017 seems fairly aggressive, especially since the Model X has been delayed so many times.
(Score: 2) by RedBear on Friday September 04 2015, @03:09PM
Huh. I just tried it on my iPhone and was able to read the whole article in a single page again. Weird. Guess they don't think mobile users will stick around and go through a dozen useless pages.
Anyone who is interested in this subject should really take a look at that article. The author really pulled out all the stops in analyzing exactly how big the vehicle will be, what battery cells will be used, the exact configuration of the battery packs, what each component will cost, etc., etc. I've gone through it several times and couldn't find a single thing to disagree with. Literally the only thing that remains a mystery at this point is exactly what the outer shell will look like.
Link again:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3258855-will-teslas-model-3-compete [seekingalpha.com]
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 2) by Rich on Friday September 04 2015, @03:39PM
It has been written that the Model 3 won't look like other cars. That would make me assume they intend to depart from the classic ponton shape (hood, cabin, boot; the single reason the Model S has a hood and a boot hatch is to appeal to conservative car buyers). If we assume they have usability in mind, it would have to be some cab-forward design. Think 1st gen Smart fortwo, 1st gen Renault Twingo, or Starship Enterprise Shuttle. In that case, the driver seat moves a whole lot forward from the indicated position of the 3-series/Model-S shape they use to illustrate. But then the floorpan layout with the battery pack recesses they thought up won't fit anymore. The basic calculations are probably sound, though.
But, if my guess at the basic layout is right, the question arises what they do with the gained space in the rear. The current F30 3-series is around 4,70m long. A 1st gen smart fortwo comes in at 2,50. That leaves them 2,20m to play with.
(Score: 2) by quacking duck on Friday September 04 2015, @04:16PM
Well, you *do* need some cargo space, so either the hood or trunk has to remain in some form. And while Musk did say it'd be way different, in the very same sentence he also said "in a way that's really useful and just doesn't feel like a weird-mobile."
So something like a golf-cart like the Google driverless car prototype is out, and maybe the Smart Car too, because although it's fine as a runabout, it doesn't fit the profile of a "really useful" multipurpose car.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Friday September 04 2015, @04:36PM
Of course I thought the 2,20 m over the old Smart would be used for useful things. Like a lounge, or a massive cargo area. The Smart was just used to point out how far forward the driver can be moved without feeling cramped. Likewise, I didn't mean that there should be no access to the "trunk". It's just that a "cargo door" is more useful than a little boot flap. Cf. certain Audi S6 sold as estate only.
Also, in Limousine territory, the Renault Avantime absolutely beats all metrics for usefulness when compared to similar sized cars. It's just that its shape did not appeal to buyers, so it flopped. Tesla might get away with it when they convince the general public that electric cars are not only hip, but have to look like that. Be there or be square. A bit like with acceptance and desirability of their large centre-console screen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 04 2015, @03:23PM
I love how it has near the beginning: Tesla Motors has a secret plan, first secretly announced back in 2006.
I'm not sure that the word secret means what he thinks it means.
I'm not sure your sarcasm detector is operational.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 04 2015, @11:41AM
That certainly describes me. I'm ready to trade in my current car the moment the Model 3 becomes available. I have had ample opportunity to drive the BMW i3 EV and Nissan Leaf, and they're fine, but Tesla is the only company that truly gets EVs and how they can employ information technology intelligently, and they're the only company that's fully committed to EVs. Everyone else is hedging their bets with half steps.
I am curious where you have gotten "hundreds of thousands of people," though. Have you read that somewhere?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday September 04 2015, @01:22PM
And me. My plan is to drive my current relatively efficient gas powered car (a Metro, but alas, with an automatic transmission because other family members can't drive a stick shift) until the wheels fall off or a decent electric car hits the market. Batteries are what's holding everything back. An electric motor is 10x better than a combustion engine, the problem has been that a gas tank is 20x better than a battery. Gasoline powered cars are dead the moment batteries become good enough. 15 minutes to recharge enough to go another 200 miles, a lifetime of 1000 recharge cycles, and ability to hold most of a charge for a month still won't be as good as a gas tank, but that may be good enough.
When that moment comes, we may see the same thing we saw with CRTs and flat screens in 2009, when CRTs vanished from store shelves nearly overnight. That shift may have been made more dramatic by the end of the collusion to hold flat screen prices artificially high. I'd noticed that unlike pretty much all other technology, for years flat screen prices refused to drop much, and there was nothing under $100. I think now it will go more like the shift from vinyl records to audio CDs. Most people will make the switch, but the old tech will hang on thanks to a few who like the old method better despite being objectively inferior. Another thing I'm looking forward to is quieter streets. But some people like noisy exhausts. They're the same people who sneer at the Prius and little cars for being too gay, try to arouse car envy in others. Seems Real Men have to show the world, especially the ladies, that they have power to waste, money to burn, and the car has been one of the top means of doing that.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 04 2015, @02:54PM
That is quite true. It seems a sort of simian display: "Watch me beat my chest!"
Amen! My family and I have had some experience the last six months borrowing my brother-in-law's BMW i3 EV, and we've discovered another really pleasant benefit of driving a quiet car: we can talk in the cabin without shouting.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 04 2015, @03:30PM
> Tesla is the only company that truly gets EVs and how they can employ information technology intelligently,
They also Big Data the ever-living shit out of their owners. Until this year the GPS didn't even work without an operational cellular connection.
Every move you make, every breath you take, every single day and every word you say, every game you play, every night you stay, Elon will be watching you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 04 2015, @03:19PM
a single page when someone linked me to it 3 weeks ago, but now it's been split into 10 pages and the site wants you to log in before getting past page 1.
It is one page for me.
I am using firefox on linux, but spoofing my useragent to IE 10 on Win7
I also have noscript blocking all javascript there and requestpolicy blocking all cross-site includes.
Just a guess - they are using javascript to make artificial 'pages' sized to your browser window and/or screen.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by WalksOnDirt on Saturday September 05 2015, @12:54AM
The last news I have heard is that the battery cost is one quarter the selling price. That would put the 85 kWh battery at about $25,000. It might be a little less now, but not less than $20,000. This is why they need a new battery factory.
He's an insane optimist.
I expect it to take around 50 kWh to get that range. The weight of the vehicle has little to do with the highway range.