Tesla has unveiled its much-anticipated Model 3 electric car - its lowest-cost vehicle to date.
The price and range of the five-seater should make the vehicle appeal to new types of customers and could boost interest in other electric vehicles.
Chief executive Elon Musk said his goal was to produce about 500,000 vehicles a year once production is at full speed.
The California-based company needs the vehicle to prove popular if it is to stay in business.
The first deliveries of the vehicle are scheduled to start in late 2017, and it can be ordered in advance in dozens of countries, including the UK, Ireland, Brazil, India, China and New Zealand.
The basic model will start at $35,000 (£24,423) and have a range of at least 215 miles (346km) per charge.
Tesla delivered 50,580 vehicles last year. Most of those were its Model S saloon, which overtook Nissan's Leaf to become the world's best selling pure-electric vehicle.
Will Tesla's gigafactory give it a leg up against the competing Chevy Bolt, Nissan Leaf, Hyundai Ionic, and other electric cars?
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Tesla has received 325,000 preorders in the first week for its Model 3 electric car. The starting price of the car is $35,000, and preorders cost $1,000. However, those preorders are refundable, and the company has faced delays for previous vehicles, leading to skepticism about the company's ambitions:
Especially at a time when the automobile seems to be slouching toward commodification, the sight of Tesla fans lining up at stores across the world hoping to put down deposits on a car they had never seen before was nothing short of mind-blowing. But as stunning as this feat of stunt salesmanship was, it was just that: Tesla has not actually sold any Model 3s and there are a wide range of reasons for believing that these pre-order eggs will not hatch into the chickens that Tesla is already counting. In fact, there are reasons to suggest that the entire pre-order play is all a gambit designed to boost the company's stock ahead of a much-needed return to capital markets.
The article goes on to point out Tesla's troubles in China, where speculators placed huge amounts of orders and inflated the actual demand.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by kanweg on Sunday April 03 2016, @08:15AM
It is goodlooking, has nice specs & fun factor combination. And being all-electric it can be quite environmentally friendly (with your choice of electricity)
Bert
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 03 2016, @08:58AM
A range of at least 215 miles. That is good - not great, but good. I could make the round trip to work twice on a single charge. Previous offerings of electric cars couldn't do that, making them completely impractical for people who commute. And, the price doesn't look bad either - there are a lot of POS cars out there already that cost more.
I'm still not rushing out to buy one though. Early adopters are early bug finders, among other things.
Wonder how difficult/expensive it would be to charge these things with solar power? After initial investments, you can drive almost free for years. A little maintenance here and there, both on the car and on the solar charging system is all you would have to worry about.
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Whoever on Sunday April 03 2016, @10:54AM
Your commute is much longer than the average. In other words, you are an outlier.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2016, @11:23AM
(Score: 2) by fnj on Sunday April 03 2016, @12:36PM
Just to balance your shitty gas car, my diesel always goes over 600. My best was 798.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2016, @02:53PM
And pollutes like a mother fucker thanks to VW cheating. Nice try though.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 03 2016, @01:15PM
Am I really an outlier with a 100 mile round trip to work? This page says that 8% of American commuters travel 35+ miles one way to work - http://www.statisticbrain.com/commute-statistics/ [statisticbrain.com]
It goes on to define and analyze "stretch commuting", although I don't see a category for those of us who only drive 50 miles each way. Not a really useful page, but it suggests that I may not be that much of an outlier.
Of course, Google gave me millions of hits, I clicked two of them which aren't helpful at all, and I'm losing interest.
Suffice to say that in my part of the country, a one-hour commute isn't quite "normal", but it isn't "abnormal" either.
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday April 03 2016, @02:56PM
I have a commute which is frequently close to an hour each way, but my average speed is close to 15mph.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Sunday April 03 2016, @03:03PM
That is pretty damn far. My daily commute is roughly 25 miles and out of everyone at work, I am the second furthest. The furthest is a kid who drives about 36 miles. Most everyone else drives >10 miles.
I dated a girl who lived 50 miles one way from me. I'd drive 200+ miles in one weekend, 100 to pick her up plus local travel (she liked the area by me), and 100 miles to drop her off. That was an insane amount of travel.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday April 03 2016, @10:31PM
Do you never go out of your way on your daily commute? Pick up the kids, or drop them off, need groceries?
My neighbor down the street has a Nissan Leaf [nissanusa.com] and she loves it, but is thinking of selling it while it still has value and renting something else till she can get a Tesla 3.
Her's is one year old, and she was promised 84 miles, and she lives 18 miles from work. But she says she has CONSTANT Range Anxiety, and feels "trapped" because she never feels comfortable running an errand on the way home if it involves any additional distance, or unfamiliar location in the city where she might get lost.
She really doesn't push it close to its actual range, mostly out of worry.
Being able to forget to charge it some evening and still make it to work tomorrow would be great for her.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday April 04 2016, @12:44PM
No kids. And groceries are a walk around the block or I drive an extra quarter mile to a large supermarket on my way home. I hop on the train for most of my leisure commuting. City living has it's perks but I unfortunately work outside of the city.
I looked at the leaf a few years back when I lived in the burbs. My daily commute was a 12 mile round trip and the supermarket was only a half mile away. Perfect for the leaf. The issue is the sub 100 mile range was useless if I had to make a trip back into the city for family or leisure. So I would need two cars which is impractical. A 200+ mile range is the sweet spot. Enough to get me to and from work plus the additional range for everything else. The bonus is you get to charge every night in your own driveway.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday April 03 2016, @04:52PM
Yes, at 8%, you are way out on the bell curve. My commute is 12 miles each way.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday April 03 2016, @10:13PM
The bell curves differently in the western portion of the US I suspect.
Your opportunity to find work near home (or a home near work) is greatly enhanced in dense urban areas or the continuous city that runs from Boston to Washington DC.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday April 04 2016, @06:17PM
I live in the very far corner of the pacific northwest
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday April 04 2016, @07:34PM
>I live in the very far corner of the pacific northwest
Lets say that was true, and you Lived in Neah Bay and worked in "nearby" Port Angeles - thats still a 70 mile commute. One Way.
But assuming you meant Seattle-ish area, there are still some nasty long commutes in that town, and not that many charging stations.
By the way: Did you know you could street view your way right into the Seattle Tesla Showroom: https://goo.gl/maps/9dnDTxgrVGS2 [goo.gl]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Redundant) by RedBear on Sunday April 03 2016, @11:38AM
Even if you jumped up right this instant to reserve your very own Model 3, it wouldn't make you an "early adopter". They've been making fully electric vehicles for several years now. They had 115,000 people place reservations for the Model 3 in less than a day, before they even revealed the car. 134,000 in 24 hours. At this point it's probably 150,000. Even if you ordered one right now I find it highly unlikely you'd encounter any real issues with the vehicle you'd eventually receive.
The only thing I worry about with Tesla is whether they can keep up with demand. By the time the first production Model 3 rolls off the line at the end of 2017 they might have half a million reservations to take care of. But, they have a huge plant with plenty of space and they seem to be making good progress on the Gigafactory to make the batteries, so I'm betting they're going to do OK.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 3, Touché) by Nuke on Sunday April 03 2016, @12:19PM
Even if you [reserved now a] Model 3, it wouldn't make you an "early adopter". They've been making fully electric vehicles for several years
You would be an early adopter of this particular model. Just because a company have been making cars for years does not mean that the next model [howstuffworks.com] will have no problems.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 03 2016, @01:18PM
As Nuke points out, all the major automakers have produced automobiles for decades, and all of the major auto makers have produced lemons from time to time. Care for a nice Ford Pinto? Or a Chevy Corvair? Both cars had their good points - and both were eventually judged to be - uhhhh - I think the term was "unsafe at any speed".
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the “real Marines”. – Major General Chesty Puller, USMC
(Score: 2) by Nollij on Sunday April 03 2016, @07:56PM
A lot of reservations makes it easy to plan for production needs.
A much bigger challenge for them would be if everyone decided on launch day that they need to get one, and places an order at that time.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by theluggage on Sunday April 03 2016, @12:01PM
A range of at least 215 miles.
The question is, does that mean
(a) the basic model will go a minimum of 215 miles on a charge, or
(b) The basic model has a specified range of 215 miles* and a 270* mile version is available as an extra (* assuming perfect conditions, actual mileage may vary due to road conditions, temperature, time of day, phase of the moon, value of pork belly futures and your willingness to drive like an obsessive-compulsive hipermiler).
Call me a cynic but I'm assuming (b). 200 miles worst-case would be when I start taking a real interest. As another poster has said, your commute is long (but not unheard of) - but plenty of other people take weekend trips, holidays, business trips etc. or do long "weekly" commutes between home and digs near work.
Also, lets put this "affordable" thing into perspective: $35k/£24k is not cheap. Yes, it is competitive with the smaller offerings from Mercedes, BMW et. al. but nobody ever accused those of being "affordable" other than c.f. a full-blown Merc or Beamer.
Currently, I drive a Mini Clubman - the current model of that is just under £20K, so probably about the same as a Tesla 3 (I think there's about a £5k government subsidy on EVs, although whether that will still be available in 2018 is anybody's guess). Ignore the subsidy and for the £24,500 Tesla base price I could get the new model, plus automatic transmission (considered a 'luxury' feature in the UK but needed for comparability with an EV) and including the "Chili" extras pack for a decent selection of bells & whistles. So yeah, the Tesla 3 is competitive with the sort of new car I'd be likely to consider - which is certainly progress - but the reality is that if I didn't have £25k to burn, I could get a solid far-eastern compact that would do the job for £10k less.
(Score: 2) by fnj on Sunday April 03 2016, @12:49PM
That will be a cold day in hell. I imagine even 100 miles worst-case would be stretching it for the Model 3. Worst case is a half-decently cold winter "day" (as if you get anything more than a couple of hours of dim sun in the winter), say -10 C, in hilly terrain, with headlights and wipers and cabin heat and demister and rear window defreezer on, stereo booming out the electricity-sucking bass, and the battery heater blazing, without a heated garage to start from, and snow and slush dragging hell on the wheels. My diesel doesn't sweat those conditions at all. Even the worst gas hog in the world can do it easily with no anxiety whatsoever.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fnj on Sunday April 03 2016, @01:05PM
Does the Clubman give you nought to 100 km/h in 6 seconds when you want it? Are you factoring in the £ saved on electricity vs petrol over the life of the vehicle, and the huge saving on engine maintenance? Granted you do have the gigantic carrying cost of the battery. But the point is, you have to factor all this in.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Sunday April 03 2016, @05:19PM
Does the Clubman give you nought to 100 km/h in 6 seconds when you want it?
No, but there are sportier alternatives with 7 sec 0-100kph in in the same ballpark price range if that is your priority.
Are you factoring in the £ saved on electricity vs petrol over the life of the vehicle,
Well, I probably spend less than £1000 a year on petrol (which is low-ish because I don't have a long commute). Home charging isn't free, and then there's that huge battery replacement cost looming, so let's take the 8 year guarantee period as the likely 'lifetime' - then there's depreciation (I'm guessing the resale value will beat ICEs in the short term but then fall off a cliff as the battery goes out of warranty & the technology becomes obsolete). Basically: insufficient data, but its not looking like a slam-dunk and is going to depend very much on what the subsidy is, how mean the base spec of the Tesla is, how the battery life & depreciation thing pans out long term etc.
and the huge saving on engine maintenance?
What huge saving on engine maintenance? I had my previous car for about 12 years and my current car for 5-6 and there have been no huge bills for ICE-specific engine maintenance: sure timing chain after 50k miles (or whatever it is) and a new (regular) car battery after 5 years or so, but nothing that's going to offset thousands of pounds, and most cars come with free servicing for a couple of years (and I guess many people sell them when that expires). EVs still have brakes, tyres, wipers, air conditioner systems etc. which account for a big chunk of regular maintenance bills... and are you claiming that the electric motors/drive train/battery are maintenance free?
Then, we're still talking Tesla 3 c.f. a "comparable" up-market smaller car. You're sure as hell not going to save the difference between a Tesla 3 and a "budget" small car costing half as much while offering 90% of the utility.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Nollij on Sunday April 03 2016, @08:06PM
As this is an electric car, things may be different. But on gas cars, vendors cannot advertise any different fuel ratings than the ones from the EPA.
These ratings were revamped in 2008 to be typical, rather than ideal conditions.
I would say 215 miles is the median range, rather than the top.
(Score: 2) by jimshatt on Sunday April 03 2016, @12:05PM
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2016, @12:50PM
I can drive to NL and back on a single tank (+- 20 gallons of diesel) and kill 2 peasants toiling at the side of the road with lung cancer in 20 years. DISDAIN FOR THE PLEBS!.
There, fixed it for you, your Majesty!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Sunday April 03 2016, @10:21PM
The range is getting to the point that it will serve most of the potential customers. The fact that orders have been placed for a quarter million of them in the first 24 hours indicates there is a demand.
Chevy Bolt (available next year) is aiming at a similar range, but a cheesier looking vehicle. Chevy burned their best name (volt) on a hybrid.
Tesla will probably deliver every bit of that range, and if you wait a model year, they will probably push the range to 300 miles. They have been by far the best at delivering what they promised as far as range goes.
They've got to do something with that hideous front end. Looks like the thing was designed when Duck Lips were still in fashion.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bitstream on Sunday April 03 2016, @08:53AM
Is there enough raw materials (lithium) to meet the demand from the manufacturing?
I suspect there might be other materials too, that may be hard to get in these volumes.
Sounds like economic peril:
"the firm still posted a net loss of $889m (£620m) for 2015, partly because it spent $718m on research and development over the period. It left Tesla with cash reserves of $1.2bn, down from $1.9bn a year earlier."
Let's hope those 718 mega USD pays off. Perhaps they can stall the expenses so they don't have deal with the banksters.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Absolutely.Geek on Sunday April 03 2016, @09:37AM
The lithium will not be a problem; there are plenty of sources of lithium in the world. Some of those sources more ethical then others but as demand increases so will the price; thus making new mines and closed mines economical again. Tesla already has deals with mines in the US to supply some of the lithium it needs.
Also there isn't that much lithium in a Li-ion battery, according to a financial times article the gigafactory will consume approx 24,000 tonnes / yr of lithium by 2020 when full production is reached. This is to produce a stated 50GWh of batteries.
So 50GWh/24Mkg = 0.48 kg/kWh so in a 90kWh Model you use 43.2kg of lithium or around 1/6 the total weight of the batteries themselves.
Battery recycling is still a new technology but as pack sizes increase it will become more realistic to collect and process batteries and get back some or all of the active materials.
As for the other materials used mostly steel and aluminium; Tesla will barely register on the global demand for those raw materials.
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
(Score: 1) by pasky on Sunday April 03 2016, @11:26AM
What about neodymium? You need good magnets in your electric motors, right? And there have been bad news about this a few years ago...
(Score: 2) by pe1rxq on Sunday April 03 2016, @01:10PM
For synchronous motors yes, for asynchronous no.
(Score: 4, Informative) by fnj on Sunday April 03 2016, @01:17PM
Wrong, actually. Yes, most of the other IDIOTS are wasting perfectly good neodymium in their EVs because they use bog-stupid DC motors with permanent magnets. Tesla uses not just his name, but Nikola's genius in the form of AC induction motors. They require no permanent magnets.
(Score: 2) by bitstream on Tuesday April 05 2016, @10:15AM
No serious downsides to that? like having to use brushes?
(Score: 1) by WalksOnDirt on Sunday April 03 2016, @04:39PM
The worst resource availability is probably cobalt, but there should be plenty of that for the next few years at least. If we run short, cobalt isn't used in all batteries. So far cobalt is used in the best batteries, but lithium sulfur batteries could change that.
(Score: 2) by bitstream on Sunday April 03 2016, @04:47PM
So what stops lithium sulfur batteries from being a commercial success?
(Score: 1) by WalksOnDirt on Sunday April 03 2016, @04:57PM
They currently have a limited cycle life. Research on improving that looks promising, but it may or may not pan out.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2016, @08:53AM
*except to the growing underclass of permanently unemployed Americans removed from the workforce by nationwide corporate policies of never hiring the unemployed. Why won't those losers just fucking die out already like the unwanted shit they are??
(Score: 2) by julian on Monday April 04 2016, @03:08AM
We keep feeding them and housing them and clothing them. It's just barely enough to keep them breathing and aware of how terrible their situation is. Any competent ruling class would see the danger of this and kill them off outright or improve their condition to impose lasting docility. I can only conclude then that our ruling class is incompetent.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by anubi on Sunday April 03 2016, @09:10AM
Being an EE type, I am very interested in not only using the car as a car, but also as a battery on wheels.
I am very interested in how to charge it from nonstandard sources ( such as solar panels ) and get the power back out in the form of 120V/240VAC and 12VDC.
Dodge was talking about one a few years ago called "The Contractor's Special". Its much bigger than what I want.
For me, I am looking for a little runaround, would like it made to be easily towable by an RV, as well as being charged from either the RV, solar panels on the RV, or 120V. I also want to use it to store power so I can get 120/240V from it. Preferably those lithium batteries that are good for lots of charge cycles. I would not need more than 200 miles on a charge, as for anything long like that, I would hook up to the mothership and tow. I do not see straying 100 miles from the mothership.
Think dinghy along a ship. When I finally find a place to put the monster mothership, I want the little dinghy for those little trips. Also if the mothership gets a dead battery, I can use the dinghy to get her started again. When its time to move on, hook the dinghy up to the mothership and go, letting the dinghy top off her charge from the mothership's alternator and solar panels.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday April 03 2016, @10:49AM
Look at the size of the average solar installation on a residential home. Those are probably designed to produce somewhere around 5kW. Now, how long do you think that it will take to charge the 60kWh battery on a Tesla from a set of solar panels designed to fit on the roof of an RV?
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Sunday April 03 2016, @12:26PM
Thank you for sharing your plans and ambitions with us.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday April 04 2016, @03:29AM
Thanks.... I know the marketing research types read these forums to get some idea what people would like to use their product for.
Just wanted to get my two cents worth in.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2016, @01:27PM
They barely released a playdough model, revealing the general shape. Only "specs" are base price, over 200 mile range, and 0-60 in 6 seconds. It wasn't even a concept model.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2016, @01:53PM
i mostly agree, it is 2 years out. the announcement revealed very little but it sure hit the marketing hype buttons
(Score: 1) by WalksOnDirt on Sunday April 03 2016, @04:50PM
There were multiple driveable cars at the unveiling. They were a little unfinished, yes, but they still have 20 months or so to fix that.
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Sunday April 03 2016, @04:28PM
$35,000 is an affordable price for a car, it's not cheap but it's not outside the reach of most people. so yeah, it's not just "affordable" it actually is affordable.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03 2016, @04:58PM
I guess it is a matter of perspective then. I don't know a single person, except the CEO of the company I work for, who has ever bought a new car. Used, sure, but not a single new one. Maybe the people I am around are smart enough to realize how big of a ripoff they are due to being a status symbol. Hell, my current car is older than my oldest kid, who is looking at colleges now.
(Score: 2) by julian on Monday April 04 2016, @03:10AM
I'd only consider it an affordable car for the masses if it was about half that price. $35k might as well be $3.5M for most people. You're out of touch if you call that affordable.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday April 04 2016, @03:42AM
I paid one-tenth that much for my 20+ year old diesel van. Agreed - if its $35K, might as well go ahead and ask $3.5M - out of my league as well.
No-one can afford that but the bankers.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by WalksOnDirt on Sunday April 03 2016, @04:54PM
Best features: Supercharging, quick acceleration, cabin space.
Worst features: Tiny trunk opening, availability.