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

[dannys1]

I kept seeing the red model with the tacky American chrome strips they use on all their cars and was just meh...

...and then that dubbled out matte grey with dark wheels, no chrome beauty thats barely photographed is at the side of the stage. NOW I'M LISTENING TESLA!!!

 

[jovada]

Musk later boasted on stage that the company had already secured 115,000 reservations before the car had even been revealed.

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.

 

[8692574]

Ugly front bumper

 

[Julien]

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.

So you are the other shooter on the grassy knoll?

 

[IronWaffle]

.

 

[TechZeke]

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

In So Cal, we already have quick charging electric buses running for 4-5 years now on Foothill Transit's line 291. The company that makes them, proterra, has already announced a standard full size 40 foot bus with extended range and quick charge. While the batteries need replacement eventually, the bus itself will out last all the current CNG buses with its much easier maintenance. CNG tanks are only rate for 12 years anyway. The future is in electric, whether people like it or not.

It'll be delivered far over the $35k price and still lose money for Tesla. They're struggling and profitability is still a LONG way off. Not sure they'll make it to that point.

I think it's because Tesla is investing new manufacturing plants to ramp up production which isn't cheap, not because their cars don't make money.

I wonder if a grill on a Tesla counts as Skeuomorphism.

Yes. the only reason why the front looks weird is because we are so used to combustion cars. If electric cars take off, the the front wouldn't look weird at all for the next generation.

 

[Jyby]

The car looks like s***! The front especially gives an awkward vibe to fresh eyes.

 

[Precision Gem]

Absolute rubbish, you tend to glance over to the side to keep aligned with the side of the road, its very easy to get used to looking for your speed etc over there.

I owned a Mini Cooper, it's not rubbish. Every day I drove the car I wished the gauges were in front of me. The other problem with the screen I see, is that it is both too close and too far. For things you look at such as the speed, or navigation you want them farther out so your eyes don't come that far off the road, but for controls you touch, you want them close. Touch screens in cars are horrid too as you drive down a bumpy road.

 

[Andres Cantu]

I wonder if the people who reserved it are having second thoughts?

At least with Apple products, you know what you're getting into when preordering (at least for the most part, for example, RAM).

 

[soupcan]

Are you just playing with me or this is a fact? :O

Franz von Holzhausen is the designer at Tesla, a position he took after resigning from Mazda back in 2008.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Holzhausen

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Lets wait and see how much that turns out to be in real useage, and how much charge it will hold after being driven for a few years.

Let's all wait and see for a few years, if a car company is still in business after no one buys its cars because we're all "wait and seeing"? Someone needs to be brave enough to not worry about the few thousand that batteries may or may not cost to replace down the road, or this gets nowhere.

Ideally, roadside battery swap stations will eventually fix this and just factor in the cost of the usage per swap, but obviously we have a ways to go before we get that infrastructure.

 

[Digitalclips]

Nice looking car except for the front, it looks like they went on a coffee brake just before they were going to design the grill but someone came and picket up the design before they came back.

I bet there will be after market third party stick on chrome grills

 

[beanbaguk]

It's simple, if you didn't sign up you would've missed the chance to get the car as soon as possible, those who haven't signed up by now is probably going to have to wait a year from the time Tesla start delivering the cars until they get theirs.
However, if you did sign up and didn't like what you saw you could cancel your reservation and get a full refund.

I get that but here are the cons (and I feel they outweigh the pros):

• You're buying an untested car. Sure it's been tested by Tesla but you have no real world consumer reviews or professional reviews. All the first people are basically guinea pigs!
• But then the argument of a refund being possible might look good on the outside but only Tesla is gaining from this. All the money will of course be held in trust but can you imagine the interest on $115 million? No doubt it'll be invested wisely so you're talking 4-5%. Basically Tesla will be making more than $5 million on you and you will gain nothing out of that money.

As the saying goes. Patience is a virtue.

 

[Mums]

So you are the other shooter on the grassy knoll?

Congratulations Julian you win the Peanut Gallery.

 

[jlc1978]

Looks beautiful. but the no grill thing is a bit much. They should have put one on. I can only imagine what that will look like after a year on the road.

I agree the "closed mouth" grill looks out of place. It just doesn't flow with the rest of the lines; I would van continued the fender curves and number to keep the rounded lines all across the front. The current design looks like Samuri Designer copped the front off of the clay model and no one noticed.

 

[RockSpider]

I owned a Mini Cooper, it's not rubbish. Every day I drove the car I wished the gauges were in front of me. The other problem with the screen I see, is that it is both too close and too far. For things you look at such as the speed, or navigation you want them farther out so your eyes don't come that far off the road, but for controls you touch, you want them close. Touch screens in cars are horrid too as you drive down a bumpy road.

When you're driving you're continually scanning from side to side not just looking straight ahead, as you're scanning your eyes see the instruments on the side. Its a lot better than to look down through your steering wheel.

 

[Fozziebear71]

Meh.

 

[prowlmedia]

I get that but here are the cons (and I feel they outweigh the pros):

• You're buying an untested car. Sure it's been tested by Tesla but you have no real world consumer reviews or professional reviews. All the first people are basically guinea pigs!
• But then the argument of a refund being possible might look good on the outside but only Tesla is gaining from this. All the money will of course be held in trust but can you imagine the interest on $115 million? No doubt it'll be invested wisely so you're talking 4-5%. Basically Tesla will be making more than $5 million on you and you will gain nothing out of that money.

As the saying goes. Patience is a virtue.

You know that they have spent Billions developing this right? reservation capital is a fantastic way of making raising capital.

Company uses money to make money - WOW! New news!

Sure, it's untested but the S is incredible and it's more than likely that this will be incredible too. There will be production reviews by the time you have to decide to buy. Personally if I was early in the queue and still didn't want it. I'd buy it and resell will be a massive markup on early ones like the i8 - No point now though of course.

I am guessing even if they hit the release date of late 2017, if I reserved now I wouldn't get it till Mid 2018.

Personally I am going to buy an preowned S when they hit 40K GBP in the interim.

EDIT *** Just Reserved a model 3 ***

 

[AndrewClarke]

Looks beautiful. but the no grill thing is a bit much. They should have put one on. I can only imagine what that will look like after a year on the road.

The "no grill thing" is because it's an electric car and doesn't need a grill. Putting a fake grill on a car is about as dumb as piping fake exhaust sound into a BMW or covering your 1998 Pontiac in body cladding.

Leaving the grill off may look a bit odd now but it's the future. The only reason to add one is if it helps aerodynamics. After a year on the road, it will look similar to any other car's bonnet or bumper.

 

[Sandstorm]

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. An optional headsup windshield display would be a much nicer solution imo, even if offered as an optional redundancy in functionality.

You're probably not from Europe. There are quite a few cars with centered speed display and if the digital digits are large enough, it's absolutely fine and comfortable. You clearly see your speed at all times, there is no "glancing over" or anything like that. I personally own Renault Scenic and really like that centered digital speedometer (I actually think it's a shame that the new 2017 Scenic reverted back to the boring traditional layout).

PS - windshield HUD would still be great and I'd be surprised if it wasn't at least an option for Tesla Model 3.

 

[Xavier]

Looks great! Should have integrated the screen into the dash though imo.

 

[hleewell]

Come-on NYC. Get these charging stations going. I want a Tesla!!!!!

Don't you guys have Supercharger stations already??

 

[jlc1978]

Absolute rubbish, you tend to glance over to the side to keep aligned with the side of the road, its very easy to get used to looking for your speed etc over there.

I disagree. YMMV, but most drives reference the front fender to stay in the lane, not glancing over the side to verify their position in the lane. Instruments in front of the driver are way to read with a quick glance, provided they aren't displayed as digits, and much better from a human factors standpoint. If the real display is as cluttered as the one shown, you're setting the driver up for an accident.

 

[Solomani]

Elon Musk also said that the Model 3 will have CarPlay as standard feature. He announced it on April 1st.

 

[Sandstorm]

Looks beautiful. but the no grill thing is a bit much. They should have put one on. I can only imagine what that will look like after a year on the road.

As AndrewClarke said, it's just a matter of getting used to + it would be kind of dumb to create a fake one just for the car to look more "traditional". Besides, most places on Earth have licence plates on front as well, so they will cover that area.