Tesla Unveils $35,000 Model 3 Electric Car, Shipping Late 2017

[Rigby]

You have to use the restroom and eat occasionally, right? Charge during that time. Superchargers get your battery filled in less than 30 minutes from completely flat.

Not really. Fully charging the battery takes about an hour (charging slows down a lot once the battery reaches about 80% capacity to avoid overheating). If the stall next to yours is occupied it may take longer (since some of the stalls share a power feed). 20 minutes give you about 125 miles of range on the Model S according to Tesla.

Superchargers are along most major thoroughfares around the world. Not to mention plain electricity is available almost everywhere. In a pinch? Plug into a wall socket. They're everywhere.

When charging from a 110V outlet, you get less than 4 miles of range per hour charged. Fully charging a 200-mile vehicle takes literally days.

Another big issue holding back adoption of EVs is that the majority of the population in urban areas has no place to charge at home.

 

[tcgjeukens]

I am driving a Ampera for four years now. The silence. The smooth gearless transmission. For day to day use with charging possibilities at both ends the battery range of the Ampera 10KWh battery is sufficient for my use. Model 3 will increase my range 6-fold and allow for super charging. That's a game changer at promised price level.
And for the interior: model 3 is so much more practical/ appealing than an Ampera.

 

[BeanieMan]

tempted?

 

[SactoGuy18]

To all of you that is crying about how the interior screen looks ugly. This is a prototype. Model S and X prototyoes had the same thing. It is not a safe future to have a screen sticking out like that with those edges. Like Model S and X it will most likely be integrated in to the panel. Interior will likely be different also. There are no interior pictures on Tesla`s website.

Completely correct. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and EuroNCAP crash test certification will result in the Model 3's front dash looking something like a derivative of the Model S interior, but probably in a sleeker form. I wouldn't be surprised that Tesla shows the final dash design at the 2017 Chicago or New York Auto Shows in anticipation of Fall 2017 production release of the car.

 

[Zebulah]

Musk said every Model 3, even the cheapest base ones will have full auto pilot systems.

What he actually said is that they would have auto pilot hardware and safety systems. IMHO that means the full autopilot is going to be an option/upgrade.

 

[Gudi]

Very nice car and competative price. Your move Apple

You can't beat the price of my vaporcar!

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Don't you guys have Supercharger stations already??

Nope.

 

[Rigby]

What he actually said is that they would have auto pilot hardware and safety systems. IMHO that means the full autopilot is going to be an option/upgrade.

Yes. That's the way it works with the Model S. All the sensors required for the autopilot come preinstalled on all models, but the actual functionality is an option.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

That's the biggest reason electric cars are a problem in NYC: on the one hand they would be perfect for the city - no smoke, pollution or noise and very few people drive 200 miles in a day. But unless they put chargers on every single street accessible form every single parking space it can't work. And considering Verizon hasn't managed to cover the city buildings with Fios, not even in rich neighborhoods - long after it promised to do it in 5 years, unless the city installs the ubiquitous car chargers itself, it will never happen.

It would even have to be that much. All you need is a couple of Superchargers at a decent amount of gas stations, and random regular slow or superchargers scattered around the city at non gas station like parking lot areas.

 

[dewski]

I think its going to be a good long while before these cars are considered by the average joe like me. I just bought a brand new kia soul for 17k and I consistently get 27 mpg. I have a 60 mile round trip commute Mon-Fri and with gas at $1.75/gal. I'm spending less than 100 dollars a month on gas, and the mpg on my car isn't even that great for the price.

So with a car payment of $270/month and a generous 130 a month in gas, that is still less than the $600/Month price tag of the Tesla. And I'm assuming there are some affects to your energy bill involved with charging your car on a nightly basis.

I would love an electric car, but it has to be competing in price with your basic honda civic.

 

[ateslik]

Touch screens also lack tactile feedback to let you know you are using the right one without actually looking at it. I can adjust radio volume, temperature, etc. in my car without taking my eyes of the road. A touch screen would require me looking and verifying I am pressing on the right place on the screen.

or just use the controls on the steering wheel? Pretty standard feature in most cars for about a decade.

 

[MH01]

You can't beat the price of my vaporcar!

$82000 and it's called The Homer

 

[Even Longer]

___Double_Post____ —> delete

 

[dontwalkhand]

The Model 3 is to Tesla what the iPhone was to Apple. I hope Tesla blows the competition away. Good luck Audi, BMW, Mercedes, etc.

As a Mercedes owner I'm looking forward to a Mercedes electric car, that is not that hideous B Class that was only made to satisfy California law. I would love an E or S class all electric.

The Tesla is ugly and the model 3 is even uglier. The interior feels cheap other than the giant screen. Take that out and it looks worse than the interior of a Honda Accord.

 

[cheesyappleuser]

It depends on your needs. If you (a) have a driveway or garage so you can home-charge overnight (b) have a long-ish - but comfortably within the car's range - daily commute and (c) maybe run a second car anyway that you can use for long trips/holidays (or your longest trip is 30 miles to the airport) then they might be perfect for you.

If you don't meet most of those criteria then, no, they're not viable yet and an EV with 200 miles (*see small print) range is not equivalent to an ICE that can do 200 miles on a tank and then be refilled in 5 minutes at any gas station.

That was not what I posted. What I mean is electric cars aren't a solution not because they have little EV, but because the technology is far from clean.

I honestly don't understand all the hype with electric cars. They aren't a viable solution right now; batteries have such heavy materials that we might be better off with petrol. Not that I'm in favour of the current model (I hate it) but this isn't a solution either.

 

[robbyx]

The car will, just the battery will need replacing every 8 years or so, which is above average even in normal cars.

'An average car battery lasts from 5 to 7 years' - http://www.testingautos.com/when-to-replace-car-battery

Regarding battery replacement, this is pretty much the only major service issue, as opposed to gasoline powered vehicles that need constant routine maintenance for a variety of different things. Replacing the battery is no doubt expensive, but you haven't been nickel and dimed for the past 8 years either.

 

[Chase085]

I think its going to be a good long while before these cars are considered by the average joe like me. I just bought a brand new kia soul for 17k and I consistently get 27 mpg. I have a 60 mile round trip commute Mon-Fri and with gas at $1.75/gal. I'm spending less than 100 dollars a month on gas, and the mpg on my car isn't even that great for the price.

So with a car payment of $270/month and a generous 130 a month in gas, that is still less than the $600/Month price tag of the Tesla. And I'm assuming there are some affects to your energy bill involved with charging your car on a nightly basis.

I would love an electric car, but it has to be competing in price with your basic honda civic.

Exactly! While the car is indeed more affordable then a 100k luxury car. The average person is still going to continue to get more utilitarian and more value with a gasoline or diesel burning car. Not to mention your Kia in the long run will be no more polluting then a Tesla (taking everything into account)

 

[sehix]

Not sold on the complete removal of digital instrument panels directly in front of the driver. Seems like it would be annoying glancing over at the giant bright screen for basic speed indication.

Probably less of an issue than you'd think at first. My old truck has a wonky speedometer that doesn't work at all part of the year (for some reason, it's fine in the middle of winter up here in Minnesota). Meanwhile, I've got a ScanGauge plugged into the OBD II port to keep track of fuel burn rate, engine tempt, etc., and have vehicle speed set as one of the displays. If my iPhone is plugged in, I can have a gps app showing speed there, too. So if the analog speedometer is working, there are three speed readouts (different tires do make some difference in actual speed travelled). If the analog one is out, I've one or two backups, depending. Turns out to not be much of an issue in actual use.

Frankly, I could get by with just the tachometer indication, but that may be because I'm used to using that for setting cruise speed when I'm flying.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Hmm.. yeah.. the screen looks out of place, both for function and form (the wheel and screen going other direction, one is soft and round, other is hard and square). It really is cheap looking.
Heck.. the least it can do is using white bezel screen. Who's designing this?

Definitely not Apple.

This is hideous.

 

[robbyx]

A normal lead car battery costs something between 50 and 100€, how much is the much bigger lithium battery ?

I'm not saying that electric cars ain't the future, I'm just not sure it's allready here and I would evenmore never preorder such a car at this point in time.

Keep in mind, it's not a pre-order. You put down $1000 to secure a place in line to buy. You can get your money back anytime.
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Tesla is a fake front company to keep back electric car production, and an insult to Nikola Tesla. Volkswagen and Mini electric car production and sales would have both been in full swing if it weren't for a nefarious cabal keeping it all reined in. You'll scoff, but electric cars have been around for more than a century. You'll say it's due to battery size that they haven't ever been mass produced, but this would not have been an issue if there would have been charging stations set up everywhere. Elon Musk is a con-front-man for oil interests.

I think your tinfoil hat needs adjusting.

 

[guychicago]

I went to the Oakbrook store yesterday evening and preordered one. Had a couple of Apple Store employees there as well and they mentioned they had not seen lines this big for an iPhone.

 

[thekeyring]

Because a lead-acid 12V car battery has anything whatsoever to do with a lithium ion high-voltage cell?

I was making the point that replacing the battery every 8 years or so isn't a big deal.

 

[Mums]

Keep in mind, it's not a pre-order. You put down $1000 to secure a place in line to buy. You can get your money back anytime.
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I think your tinfoil hat needs adjusting.

You're late.

 

[robbyx]

Whenever I tell someone I want a Tesla they inevitably say, "yeah but the range is only 200 or 250 miles." Yeah, and I've gone on one trip in two years when that would have mattered, I have another car, and 99% of my driving is less than 20 miles a day.

Right. It's the dumbest argument unless you're a long haul trucker or something. People just like to find reasons to complain and think they know it all. Besides, at this point, Tesla has thousands of Superchargers across the country and according to Musk they plan to double that number. If you're on a long trip, you stop for lunch, charge for an hour, and get back on the road. No big deal.

 

[ValiumEater]

Preordered mine.