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."
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @01:52AM (11 children)
They should've had the Mexicans pay for it.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @02:31AM (9 children)
FTFY...They should've had the Mexicans build it.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @02:51AM (8 children)
No good. Then it would be "they took our jerbs....!!!?"
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 01 2019, @02:59AM (7 children)
https://electrek.co/2018/06/08/tesla-model-3-body-line/ [electrek.co]
The robots are going to derka durr.... again.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday March 01 2019, @04:14AM (6 children)
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?
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @05:59AM
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
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
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)
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 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.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 01 2019, @06:13PM
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.
(Score: 2) by iWantToKeepAnon on Friday March 01 2019, @02:52PM
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @02:33AM (1 child)
1. Musk is dropping the price because he wants to increase sales to 500k this year and make his tweet true.
2. Tesla is running out of cash and wants to stop paying rent at the end of the month. They are also running out of buyers for the more expensive cars.
(Score: 4, Informative) by MostCynical on Friday March 01 2019, @02:44AM
Numbers don't support your theories.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/502208/tesla-quarterly-vehicle-deliveries/ [statista.com]
https://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/ [insideevs.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday March 01 2019, @04:11AM (4 children)
After driving an electric car for a while, even though it's an old Nissan Leaf with degraded batteries that have a crappy range of only 55 miles, I don't want to go back. I begrudge having to use a gasoline powered car for the longer trips that the electric can't handle. A Tesla could handle those 80 mile round trips that my Leaf can't do without a recharge. If the public charging network was more reliable, the electric could do the 80 mile trips too. That leaves the occasional long road trip as the only thing the electric can't do, and for that, can just rent a gas burner.
The electric is niiice. Quiet, smooth, low maintenance, very responsive, quick off the line, and no fumes blowing around, stinking up the air and getting in the window at the drive thru.
I don't know when the year of the electric car will happen, but it's coming, maybe as soon as 2020, and I think very likely before 2030. Depends a lot on how quickly Tesla can produce cars, and the other auto manufacturers switching to electric faster because they know they'll die if they don't. Maybe in 2025, we'll see ICE cars dumped en mass. No one will want them, and they'll be clogging up used car lots so severely that perfectly sound cars will have to be sent to the crusher. Gas stations will be closing like crazy, and the price of gasoline will plunge.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Knowledge Troll on Friday March 01 2019, @04:44PM (3 children)
I'm having a hard time understanding here. Is this what you want to see or what you think will happen?
That would be a tragedy. There is no good reason to destroy a perfectly viable chassis because the propulsion system in it has became obsolete. Recovering the chassis and installing an electric conversion into the previous ICE automobile is the proper action here. Not crushing a machine that still functions.
If the price of gasoline plunges the economics of the ICE become better and people will return to that energy storage mechanism again because of the cost effectiveness.
I think if you want to see something like perfectly viable chassis being sent off to the crusher for no good reason you'll have to get the Government involved to provide the appropriate incentive. I'd prefer some form of program that would help people convert viable machines back into a viable machine again.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday March 01 2019, @06:14PM (2 children)
I really think the electric car is coming fast, it's only a question of when. 2025? Earlier? Later?
I base this on an appreciation of the stunningly fast and abrupt collapse of tube TVs and monitors in 2009, which year was evidently a tipping point. At the start of 2009, about half the TVs for sale were tube, and the rest were flatscreens. By the end of the year, the tubes were all gone. Flatscreens had been widely available for a decade at that point (more exotic, rarer, less good, and more expensive flatscreen tech had been around longer-- plasma screens, anyone?), but older models had a number of deficiencies such as slow response times, not very black blacks and not very bright whites. And they used fluorescent for the backlighting. That changed to the more efficient and capable LED backlighting around then, and they steadily improved in display quality and speed. Now CRTs are almost entirely gone, barely holding onto a few niches.
Batteries are at about the point that flatscreens were in 2005. Still not as good at energy storage as the humble gas tank, but getting better all the time, while the gas tank is at a standstill-- are there any significant improvements still possible for the gas tank? Batteries do not have to be as good as gas tanks, they only have to be good enough in combination with the vastly superior electric motor to beat the gas tank and internal combustion engine combo. And when that day comes, when the battery electric is not just equal, but considerably better, maybe at least 20% better, more than enough to offset the combination blow of increased electricity prices and reduced gasoline prices thanks to good old Economics 101 Supply and Demand principles, then I think we'll see a tipping point like we did for monitors in 2009, and ICE cars will be toast. 2009 was the Year of the Flatscreen. I don't know which year will be the Year of the Electric car, but I think there will be one, soon. It doesn't necessarily have to be exclusively batteries either, there's also fuel cells, fly wheels, and other energy storage methods that could suddenly emerge as the method of choice. However, I'm thinking batteries are most likely.
Another factor is solar power. Solar panels have been improving by leaps and bounds. Going to see a lot more solar on residential roofs, which will make switching to electric cars easier on the finances and the grid.
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Friday March 01 2019, @07:38PM
Thank you for clarifying. I'm really looking forward to the point where battery tech hits that workable tipping point too. I like your analysis on how quickly the situation can flip too when technology is ready. Though one variable here is the cost difference - $350 to $1000 for a computer monitor vs $35,000 vs $100,000 for an electric car and that is quite the ratio.
If you throw out a CRT there is also some loss of energy. If you huck an entire car chassis into the crusher you have lost a lot of energy that was invested in creating the material, shaping it and joining it. Even if you recycle the material and produce another chassis out of it you still invest quite a bit more energy into producing a new chassis than just using the existing one.
This is why it's a good thing to not crush existing ICE cars when they become obsolete.
(Score: 2) by Absolutely.Geek on Sunday March 03 2019, @11:13PM
The tipping point you speak of is a lot wider for a car vs a monitor; but overall you are correct. For many people the tipping point has been reached; the people that drive 100km / day or less for work etc...these people are well serviced; perhaps a few more models to choose from but the tech has been there for them for a few years.
I regularly travel ~300km / day for work; a Tesla Model S / X which I can buy in NZ would suit me well....except the price is too much; apparently we are getting the Model 3 later this year; the long range would meet my needs. I would love to get an electric car; but there is nothing on the market in NZ that meets my needs at a price I'm willing to pay.
As Knowledge Troll points out; the cost difference between a CRT and a flat screen makes the purchase decision vastly different.
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dltaylor on Friday March 01 2019, @04:12AM (2 children)
For example, I can not get into a Model S without ridiculous contortions. There is not room enough between the seat and top of the door opening to clear my head.
I looked long and carefully to find a car with straightforward entry and exit, at all four doors (none of those pseudo-fastback "sedans" have a rear seat I can use with adult passengers), controls that are within easy reach and readily identifiable without taking my eyes off the road, no intrusions into leg or arm (particularly elbows) space, good visibility in all directions, and proper seat comfort for extended drives (Los Angeles, CA to Billings, MT, for example). Also, it must be a car because I transport an older woman with mobility issues who cannot climb into a truck, van, or SUV.
Admittedly, as an ex-linebacker (back in the day), I'm an outlier, as were my fullback father, my defensive end brother, and my basketball center sister.
Quite a while ago, I found the closest thing to perfect for me: a 2004 Jaguar XJ (the body continued to 2009, the newer ones do NOT work for me).
Look at the pictures and see how much glass area the car has, how the tall roof line gives plenty of head room, and the easy button layout for commonly used features.
http://www.thecarconnection.com/photos/jaguar_xj_2006 [thecarconnection.com]
https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http://images.gtcarlot.com/pictures/38151751.jpg&f=1 [duckduckgo.com]
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Friday March 01 2019, @10:38AM
From the Tesla announcement :-
But is that a way for Tesla to get a lot of short-term loans I wonder?
And reading that again, what is meant by you can "return it for free"? Free to Tesla? You don't have to pay to return it?
(Score: 2) by DavePolaschek on Friday March 01 2019, @03:16PM
You don't, and because auto manufacturers lie on their headroom numbers in the rare cases that they even make them public (ok, they all just use their own way of measuring, meaning that 30" of headroom in a GMC can be more than 2" different than 30" of headroom in a Ford) you can't even compare the numbers (if you can find them) usefully.
But if the numbers actually matter to you, the Tesla likely won't fit you.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Friday March 01 2019, @10:42AM (1 child)
From Tesla's announcement :
Did they mean "from 3 to 325 miles? That's how I read it at first scan.
(Score: 2) by etherscythe on Friday March 01 2019, @04:12PM
No. Previous range was 310 miles for the long range Model 3.
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @04:31PM
well i hope they don't have to store a lot of cars in one place.
just one disaster would ruin the whole lot.
happened to honda after grudgingly (i suppose) accepting investment incentives from the thai government
that only were granted if they agreed to build their factory in a official "industrial zone" which
also happened to be a age-old flood plain in ayudeyha-ha-ha-ha :)
https://www.autoblog.com/photos/honda-flood-cars-in-thailand/ [autoblog.com]
-
also, only selling the cars via internet is proooobably not going to fly with some
establish mafia groups (car dealers, transporter, etc.)?
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday March 01 2019, @07:49PM
... Detroit will try to get a law passed (either Federal or in enough key states) that vehicles which are to drive on Interstates must pass local safety checks done by a local/in-state dealer/seller. Or some other clever mechanic that makes it impossible to buy a new car online without a local party involved in the transfer. And how does Detroit manage to sell EV's through local dealers, then, if it so unprofitable to do so?
This sig for rent.