Official Tesla Model 3 thread

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
LTLFTcomposite said:
Top of the line M3 for $78k compared to what, $140k+ for top of the line MS?
$78,000, without "Autopilot and" "full self driving".

So, about a year into "production", you will now be able to pay over $85,000 for a model 3, before you can get one deliverd for under $50,000.

I expect you may also be given the option to pay over $100,000 for a 3, before you can buy one for the claimed "$35,000".

Hell of a way to introduce TSLA's (not just "affordable", but even "more affordable"!) mass-market vehicle...
 
There will be some who are indignant or disappointed they didn't get their affordable Tesla this go-round, but such is life. As long as they have a sufficient supply of customers with money in hand waiting to buy the pricier versions they'd be foolish to expend resources cranking out low margin units, particularly at this crucial juncture when they need to improve the cash flow situation.

Was there ever a commitment when particular orders would be filled? I doubt it, even if their were "expectations" there must have been lots of fine print. Folks that really were significantly affected by the longer wait probably just had their deposits refunded.
 
cwerdna said:
I wonder if the claim "simply adding a second motor for all-wheel-drive (and extra reliability -- Musk said either one can drive the car if the other breaks)" is actually true on the 3.

On AWD Model S, there were cases where it didn't help.
To follow up on this, I didn't have the time to find this last night, but on the S, it's asserted that if the rear drive unit fails (unless it leaves its inverter intact), the AWD S is hosed and can't limp along on the front motor.

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/p85d-front-motor-died.50363/#post-1079602
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/p85d-front-motor-died.50363/#post-1080023
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/p85d-front-motor-died.50363/#post-1080306
 
edatoakrun said:
LTLFTcomposite said:
Top of the line M3 for $78k compared to what, $140k+ for top of the line MS?
$78,000, without "Autopilot and" "full self driving".

So, about a year into "production", you will now be able to pay over $85,000 for a model 3, before you can get one deliverd for under $50,000.

I expect you may also be given the option to pay over $100,000 for a 3, before you can buy one for the claimed "$35,000".

Hell of a way to introduce TSLA's (not just "affordable", but even "more affordable"!) mass-market vehicle...
I had the very same thought. All they are doing is jacking up the price. I put money down because they said there would be a $35k vehicle. A year later not only are they not producing it but are instead adding yet more options never originally announced. As far as I'm concerned they should have announced a $25k or a $10k Tesla, they'd be no more real than the $35k one.

When it became obvious to me there was no way I'd ever get the federal rebate for this car, I concluded it was time to stop partaking in these shenanigans and I recently withdrew my reservation.
 
It's kind of funny that what I said in late 2015 was kinda right and those who disagreed were wrong.

Back then at http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=435929#p435929, I said
cwerdna said:
Yep.... knowing them, they'll start with the way most expensive fully loaded models and make available cheaper ones as time progresses... and they might pull the same business they did w/the 40 kWh Model S (http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=434835#p434835).
The reply was
evnow said:
Tesla can't use the same tactics they used with premium car to sell a mass market car.

They should do away with sigs, offering the highest spec cars first, etc.
And another reply afterward
evnow said:
Zythryn said:
I disagree.
What better way to test a new line at full speed other than to simplify the number of variables.
And if you are going to start with one trim level, it just makes business sense to start with the one with the higher profit margin.
A better way to start would be to see what kind of optics their actions give Tesla - that of catering to elites or to mass market.

Look at all the news articles on X. They all state how expensive it is - even though it is sig.

Since Musk keeps talking about $35k - the first offering that gets a lot of press - better cost $35k and not $70k
It's annoying that the mythical $35K number keeps coming up.

In https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=188&v=AO33rOofFpg (skip to 3:08), published April 13, 2018, she asserts the price of the car is $35K bare bones and $50K "fully loaded". Uh, no. Back then, the min car you could get was $49K. Add another $5K for EAP and another $3K on top of that for prepayment for "FSD". IIRC, some wheels and colors add more $.
 
jlv said:
<snip>
FWIW, I drove my nice blue dinosaur 200 miles from NYC back to MA the other day. I stopped for a bathroom break at the Greenwich SC, one of the older sites (opened in 2014) with just 4 stalls in each direction (8 total). I was surprised to see a pair of CHAdeMO chargers just across the parking lot, but looking close I found that both had "OUT OF ORDER" signs screwed onto them. And the signs looked like they'd been there a while.

People are going to balk when they find they can't reliably take their competitor "more advanced large BEV" on a real trip, because they can't depend upon the DCFC infrastructure to be either reliable or fairly priced.
I expect that advantage for Tesla will rapidly reduce over the next few years, owing to Electrify America's network and others, with multiple 150kW and eventually 350kW QCing. Pricing may be another matter.
 
It will be interesting to see at 4000-5000 cars per week how long it takes to exhaust the backlog of customers willing to pony up for loaded models... either amongst those who plunked down deposits early on or newcomers placing orders in real time. Who knows, maybe never. We don't really know how many people put down deposits with the stripper in mind, or even out of those how many changed their minds and decided they really didn't want plastic wheel covers after all when push came to shove.
My prediction is we get the excuse at some point that there wasn't much interest in the base model and it gets discontinued. Early reservation holders will be offered some crippled version or the opportunity to be first in line for the exciting new subcompact model.
Face facts, Tesla isn't yet in a position to survive on low margin units. They did succeed in bringing the entry point down a lot. Give them five more years.
 
lpickup said:
GRA said:
With AWD available to order this week, that doesn't appear to be a major problem (depending on the lead time).

AWD's ordered "late" this week (that's Elon time, so I predict it goes at least into next week) delivered to Canada will not be delivered prior to July 1 anyway. Not to mention Elon said that they weren't going to actual deliver (and probably build) AWDs until after July 1.
Seems you called the timing right:
According to Musk, production should begin on the Performance Model 3 this July. He also said that deliveries of the Dual Motor Model 3 should begin in the same month.
https://insideevs.com/tesla-model-3-dual-motor-and-performance-versions-revealed/

Also, LA to Vegas (279 miles) non-stop, via IEVS: https://insideevs.com/watch-a-tesla-model-3-go-from-la-to-vegas-on-single-charge/
 
Lot of tweets...
GaLWcVx.jpg
 
GRA said:
lpickup said:
Seems you called the timing right

LOL, no, I didn't get the timing right. Almost 2 weeks ago, when Elon initially said orders for AWD would open by the end of last week (i.e. yesterday), he also said that production would be in July. So it was no prognostication...just repeating what Elon said in the first place.

At the same time, it only makes sense anyway, given a production + delivery pipeline of up to 6 weeks, so unless they've been pre-building AWD vehicles (not likely, due to the apparent lack of significant number of AWD VINs registered), even if they started building them today it would probably not be delivered until July anyway.
 
EatsShootsandLeafs said:
edatoakrun said:
...So, about a year into "production", you will now be able to pay over $85,000 for a model 3, before you can get one delivered for under $50,000.

I expect you may also be given the option to pay over $100,000 for a 3, before you can buy one for the claimed "$35,000".

Hell of a way to introduce TSLA's (not just "affordable", but even "more affordable"!) mass-market vehicle...
I had the very same thought...

When it became obvious to me there was no way I'd ever get the federal rebate for this car, I concluded it was time to stop partaking in these shenanigans and I recently withdrew my reservation.
TSLA has insured that virtually all of the $3 (?) billion of support it will have received from the federal tax credit will be used to sell BEVs to the well-off.

For its slightly-less-well-off (or in many cases, just more financially responsible) customers, TSLA has generously accepted (in the form of model 3 deposits) interest-free loans...
 
So those with less money that buy $35k cars are more financially responsible? That’ does not sound idiotic at all. You also imply Tesla is trying to get loans off he back of the less well to do, the poor people that buy $35k cars? What a crock. Tesla has always delivered higher optioned cars first, that’s a given and it’s not for the reasons you state. Also a vast majority of its employees got first rights on the cars of which a large percentage pushed their reservations for AWD. So I guess they get screwed? Get your deposit back and you won’t have to be victim of payday loan operator Musk.
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
I hope nobody is paying ridiculous cc interest rates on that grand but I suspect some are.


If you need to float $1000 any CC for that long it seems like you may not be able to afford a $35K plus car and certainly not the finance rates on the car. I guess those would be Ed's financially responsible contingency.
 
Somone at TCF made a note that (at the top of) https://www.tesla.com/model3 are supposed wait times (month ranges) if you reserve now for various configs (e.g. long range battery and RWD vs. say standard battery).

A recent snapshot at https://web.archive.org/web/20180519191624/https://www.tesla.com/model3 didn't have that.
 
cwerdna said:
Somone at TCF made a note that (at the top of) https://www.tesla.com/model3 are supposed wait times (month ranges) if you reserve now for various configs (e.g. long range battery and RWD vs. say standard battery)

"Standard range 6-12 months." With 400,000 preorders and 5k per week that is 80 weeks of production. Sure, some cancellations, but I don't see how there is much chance of a new order being delivered in 6 months for the standard range. Even 12 months seems unlikely.
 
What if new orders keep coming in for long range models at a rate greater than or equal to the production rate? Does the standard range model ever get produced?
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
It will be interesting to see at 4000-5000 cars per week how long it takes to exhaust the backlog of customers willing to pony up for loaded models... either amongst those who plunked down deposits early on or newcomers placing orders in real time. Who knows, maybe never. We don't really know how many people put down deposits with the stripper in mind, or even out of those how many changed their minds and decided they really didn't want plastic wheel covers after all when push came to shove.
My prediction is we get the excuse at some point that there wasn't much interest in the base model and it gets discontinued. Early reservation holders will be offered some crippled version or the opportunity to be first in line for the exciting new subcompact model.
Face facts, Tesla isn't yet in a position to survive on low margin units. They did succeed in bringing the entry point down a lot. Give them five more years.

I doubt the base model will get discontinued as there are many orders. Every person I know that reserved with the intent to get a SR model has decided to get an LR model after more education on the advantages. Besides not estimating the original 3 demand I know Tesla was severely blind sided by the very large number of reservations that shifted from SR to LR and up to AWD and even the number of performance models will be much higher than anticipated. Once the "actual" specs on the P version are seen the sales and praise in the performance market will go way up. The P version is poised to be one of the quickest and best handling cars in it's class ever. Should Tesla be able to product cars in the 100Ks then the ability to produce higher margin base models will increase as well. Tesla can also dramatically reduce the cost of the 3 for non autonomous buyers by stripping all related hardware but I doubt the would ever do that but it remains a viable and deep cost cutting option. I could see this as an option for specific fleet sales applications for rental companies.
 
Back
Top