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

[cheesyappleuser]

How is this not a solution? Batteries can be recycled, the "gas station" is in your own home, the current range covers the vast majority of daily commuting needs, battery tech is getting better, and we are slowly converting to more sustainable electricity production. I've never understood the defeatism. We should stop moving forward because it's not perfect right away? Not to mention that even burning coal or natural gas, a power plant will always be more efficient than a ICE.

I do agree on one point: we should keep moving forward. However, batteries aren't exclusive to cars and no good solution has been found yet. Why, I don't know. But the process of recycling batteries is awful, since they're all made from hazardous materials (lithium), so the point of being eco-friendly is totally missed. Besides, battery tech has stood still comparatively to technology over the years, and because of that the only way to get higher-capacity batteries is by increasing its size (and thus the amount of hazardous components). And remember the energy you plug into your car still comes from burning coal or natural gas, as you already stated.
Honestly, the most eco-friendly transportation I can find is in electrified railway (subway, train), and it doesn't look like it's going to be otherwise any time soon.

 

[sehix]

I've had my license for 2 years now. I've never ever had to look to the middle of my car to see if I'd run off the road, only when doing 3-point turns or when parking, at which point the speedometer doesn't matter. Try driving in a straigt line when looking at your radio or navigation in the middle of your car. You'll slowly drift towards the right (or left if you have a the steering wheel on the right), especially if you do it for more than a second (which you will do if you try to get your speed right).

I think you mean "outside" or "to the sides" rather than "middle of my car"? Having had your license now for two years, depending on how much driving you've been doing, you're just about coming up to moderate driving competence, as long as you haven't been developing any bad habits. (After ten or thirty or fifty years' experience, it should be even more natural.)

If you're spending more than a fraction of a second checking your speedometer to keep the speed where you want it, you're doing it wrong. (It's similar to something called "target fixation", look it up.)

Hopefully, with more experience, you'll get used to doing a constant scan between instruments, rear- and side-view mirrors, side windows, and to the front through the windscreen, switching between near-, mid-, and far-view of the road ahead. Actually, it's a lot easier with analog gauges than digital; you don't have to translate the numbers each time, which takes longer than quickly seeing the relative position of a needle.

Pilots have dealt with a similar issue for decades, and depending on the complexity of the aircraft they're flying, they may have important indicators scattered all around, with the most important placed close together to ease the scan. Head's up displays are nice, and can reduce pilot workload quite a bit ... but your workload while driving is a lot lower than theirs.

 

[ValiumEater]

Why can't they design an affordable electric car that also looks good?

Have you seen the S or the X in person? I see a dozen S's a day and they are one of the sexiest cars on the road. My friend has an X and that thing exudes sex and power. His wife has an S with Ludicrous mode and you've never experienced acceleration until you've gotten on the 101 with that thing.

 

[robbyx]

I agreed. As much as I like the car I want to test drive and try it out first. As it is a big ticket item. But then again, it's probably safe to assume that quite a few of the pre-order are people with money to spend. It's more of a toy for them. I don't mind not being the first, so I'll wait and see.

It's NOT a pre-order. It's a deposit. It secures your place in line to buy. That is all. You can change your mind and get your money back anytime.

 

[handsome pete]

Is this another April Fools joke !?
Hard to take anything seriously today.

No, the announcement happened yesterday. And I doubt the CEO of the company would host a large unveiling event as an elaborate prank.

I'm not sure electric cars make a lot of sense for a large part of the population yet, either.

How so? I'm sure the vast majority of driving is commuter and local travel. If an EV has an equivalent sticker price to a comparable ICE model, is cheaper to run and maintain, and may also include some tax rebates, how is it not feasible for most drivers? The biggest hurdle to ownership is probably running a 240v outlet to your garage or driveway.

It's cool, it's getting more affordable, but still a hight end expensive car. Ignoring the environmental benefits, the whole point of electric should be that it's super cheap to charge and maintain, but if the car itself costs 10 times the price of a regular car, it's not worth it,

How is $35k 10x more expensive than any other new car out there?

I like it.
(Please put an analog speedometer in front of my eyeline, even if computer-generated. There's a reason we look at charts and graphs instead of raw digits when we want quick info.)

I'd agree that an analog display works better for some metrics, but not speed. How is seeing the rate of speed presented by an actual number worse than a gauge with a range of values? I'm thinking you prefer the latter simply because it's what you're accustomed to.

 

[sehix]

No a fake grill that is there more for style than function. A bit like a lot of the trim on any car, it looks nice but thats all.

Depends on how much airflow they might need for cooling the batteries and associated control electronics.

 

[dyt1983]

I was shocked that yesterday they wouldn't accept PayPal at the dealerships when reserving two cars. (Nor Pay.) I didn't feel like standing in line so I returned a few hours after they opened and it took less than 5 minutes.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

If you're on a long trip, you stop for lunch, charge for an hour, and get back on the road. No big deal.

Not even an hour. During the event Musk said it takes 20 minutes for a supercharger to fully charge the Model 3. He didn't specify the battery size at any point, so we don't really know what the amperage of the superchargers will need to be.

On another note - the steering wheel looks like an after thought. And I suspect it is exactly that. It's something they quickly added to the prototype to keep the fact that it's going to be fully autonomous a secret. Musk referring to this as The Model 3 revealing part 1, and said part 2 will come in summer or fall of next year.

I think part of the idea is to announce it and sell it back to back so quickly that law makers don't have time to hamper the deployment. It'll take them months to try making any progress in banning the car, by which point various reputable sources will have confirmed that the Model 3 driving itself crashes far less often (if at all) than even the best human drivers. At which point law makers will be pressured into just backing off entirely.

 

[Zebulah]

You can change your mind and get your money back anytime.

I think of it is a kind of unsecured, interest-free loan to a company with a dodgy credit rating. Remember, if they go belly up you'll be fighting to get that deposit back.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I was shocked that yesterday they wouldn't accept PayPal at the dealerships when reserving two cars. (Nor Pay.) I didn't feel like standing in line so I returned a few hours after they opened and it took less than 5 minutes.

Huh. That must have been a last minute change. Last week when I called the store they told me they would be accepting cards and PayPal. I made my deposit with a card.

 

[robbyx]

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.

Tesla has a cool little calculator on their website that compares your electricity cost (based on zipcode I believe) to fuel prices. Granted, gas prices have come down, but when I last checked it out (probably a year ago), charging was about 1/4 the cost of fuel in my area.

The way I see it, Model 3 allows a lot more people to support the EV dream. A lot of people want to buy an EV because they see it as the future, they care about the environment (and yes, we can argue about whether or not EVs are more environmentally friendly), and/or they don't want to support the horrible oil industry and nations like Saudi Arabia that bankroll terrorism. There are many reasons to buy an EV and some people are willing to pay a premium if they believe the purchase is in line with their beliefs. Model 3 makes that possible for many many more people. You're clearly not someone who cares about those things, so for you it's about bottom line price. But there's a huge market out there who consider other factors and this car is within their price range.

 

[Junior117]

I mean, I like the car and everything, but...

... I don't know: the fact that there's no front grills at the front of the car just makes me feel off for some reason. Maybe it's me just being used to seeing that on pretty much every car out there, but it just feels weird. It could just be for design in order for me to feel comfortable. Ah, whatever; I'll live with it.

And the other thing: I imagine it being difficult to drive around Toronto with this when I don't see a lot of Tesla charging stations.

I would one day like to buy a Tesla (used to like Audi and whatnot, but... well, you know), but the second issue should probably need to be resolved first before I'm comfortable enough to buy one (of course, once I have the money).

 

[robbyx]

I think of it is a kind of unsecured, interest-free loan to a company with a dodgy credit rating. Remember, if they go belly up you'll be fighting to get that deposit back.

For sure, you'll lose the deposit. But that's not the point. People are calling it a pre-order and acting incredulous that anyone would pre-order without test driving, etc. It's not a pre-order. That's all I was saying. It's a deposit, or as you note, an interest-free loan, and you can get it back anytime (assuming they don't go belly up).
[doublepost=1459530652][/doublepost]

You're late.

And you're off your rocker if you think Tesla is a "fake front company to keep back electric car production". That's the most embarrassingly stupid thing I've heard in a long time.

 

[routine_analyst]

Apple. Buy Tesla and let Elon Musk run the company.

 

[Mums]

For sure, you'll lose the deposit. But that's not the point. People are calling it a pre-order and acting incredulous that anyone would pre-order without test driving, etc. It's not a pre-order. That's all I was saying. It's a deposit, or as you note, an interest-free loan, and you can get it back anytime (assuming they don't go belly up).
[doublepost=1459530652][/doublepost]

And you're off your rocker if you think Tesla is a "fake front company to keep back electric car production". That's the most embarrassingly stupid thing I've heard in a long time.

Or maybe it's the first time you've been confronted with critical thinking.

 

[doelcm82]

I do agree on one point: we should keep moving forward. However, batteries aren't exclusive to cars and no good solution has been found yet. Why, I don't know. But the process of recycling batteries is awful, since they're all made from hazardous materials (lithium), so the point of being eco-friendly is totally missed. Besides, battery tech has stood still comparatively to technology over the years, and because of that the only way to get higher-capacity batteries is by increasing its size (and thus the amount of hazardous components). And remember the energy you plug into your car still comes from burning coal or natural gas, as you already stated.
Honestly, the most eco-friendly transportation I can find is in electrified railway (subway, train), and it doesn't look like it's going to be otherwise any time soon.

I think we're on the cusp of a big battery revolution. There are many promising technologies, and many big players, including Apple, working on them. With technology (and Revolution) it never makes sense to say that because it hasn't happened in the recent past, it won't happen in the near future. Nearly every revolution happens after a period when revolution wasn't happening.

More than ten years after I first heard about the coming HDTV revolution (late 80s) I had yet to see HDTV with my own eyes. Then ten years later it had completely replaced "standard" definition, which had decades of inertia behind it. We are getting to a point where the world is ready for an energy revolution, and the current battery tech won't be good enough. It's just a matter of which competing new technology (ies) will win out. The will is there. And this isn't something like teleportation or FTL travel, where the laws of the universe might stand in our way. With Energy, the way is there, too.

 

[imran5720]

But why on first April?

 

[doelcm82]

But why on first April?

This happened yesterday, not today.

 

[jwdawso]

I think the car looks great, and can completely understand the excitement. But a $1000 for a place in line that starts in a year and a half???? For anybody that thinks a $1000 is a nice amount of money, why not just wait and avoid any risk? I don't like that they are asking for money so far in advance - why not start the deposits 6 months in advance instead of 18? It makes me say "no thanks" for now.

 

[Kabeyun]

They should make a front grill and blow air to front trunk? There is no big engine in front u know.

Don't care. It looks silly. Let the propulsion system be the nontraditional part. Someone please give that thing something other than a body-colored cliff in the front.

And btw, forget the good idea of a heads-front display, let alone a heads-up display. Here we have a heads-right display. Luckily for Tesla the 5-star safety rating measures what happens in a crash, not your likelihood of getting into a crash in the first place.

Too bad. So close. Looks like I'm still saving for a Model S.

 

[spinedoc77]

I don't know about that. The most popular cars today are actually not "sporty" looking ones, but models like the VW Golf (which is also available as an electric version). The Model 3 looks kind of like a generic Japanese car to me (except for that nose).

Yeah I don't fully disagree. How anyone could like a mini cooper is beyond me, but it's a popular car.

 

[Keirasplace]

Apple. Buy Tesla and let Elon Musk run the company.

And then die, because making no profit isn't really all that a good idea....

 

[Kabeyun]

I think the car looks great, and can completely understand the excitement. But a $1000 for a place in line that starts in a year and a half???? For anybody that thinks a $1000 is a nice amount of money, why not just wait and avoid any risk? I don't like that they are asking for money so far in advance - why not start the deposits 6 months in advance instead of 18? It makes me say "no thanks" for now.

This comment makes me say, "Read the terms. You get a full refund if you cancel."

https://www.teslamotors.com/support/model-3-reservation-deposit

 

[spinedoc77]

If you choose between electric cars based on look, you've lost it already.

Oh, so you're saying looks have no importance on consumers decisions to buy a vehicle? If the specs are similar then heck yeah I'd choose the vehicle which appealed to me more.

 

[gixxerfool]

Have you seen the S or the X in person? I see a dozen S's a day and they are one of the sexiest cars on the road. My friend has an X and that thing exudes sex and power. His wife has an S with Ludicrous mode and you've never experienced acceleration until you've gotten on the 101 with that thing.

I have. I don't consider their price point affordable though. Anything in the $30k-$40k range is just ugly to me.