Tesla unveils $35K Model III
- Thread starter Deadbolt
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
smallbigtall
jon gruden's haircut
Admittedly from Tesla's own material, but here's one illustration:
http://www.teslamotors.com/goelectric#savings
22 MPG car at $3.90/gal over 30,000 miles costs $5,318 in fuel
Tesla Model S at $0.12/kWh over 30,000 miles costs $1,048 in electricity
http://www.teslamotors.com/goelectric#savings
22 MPG car at $3.90/gal over 30,000 miles costs $5,318 in fuel
Tesla Model S at $0.12/kWh over 30,000 miles costs $1,048 in electricity
PhDeac
PM a mod to cement your internet status forever
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
- Messages
- 155,848
- Reaction score
- 22,810
So at about 1,000 miles a month, it should raise you electric bill about $35/month compared to $178/month for gas (around 3-4 fill ups). That's not going to make up the price difference between the Model S and a comparable 22 MPG, but it helps.
Last edited:
Deacon923
Scooter Banks
Depends on the comparable. It is a true large luxury performance sedan, in the same class as the BMW 7 series or Mercedes S class. Those cars are not too different in price from the S at all, in fact if you trick them out they can be more expensive (especially the S Class). Check this out. http://insideevs.com/tesla-model-s-outsells-bmw-7-series-audi-a8-mercedes-benz-s-class-and-lexus-ls-in-us-in-q1-of-2013/
smallbigtall
jon gruden's haircut
This. If you're comparing it to an Accord or Impala or something, then yeah, it's more expensive, but it's not even in the same league:
Deadbolt
Well-known member
Seriously, if you've never driven/ridden in one, you have to check it out. The cool factor of these things is off the charts. And if they become affordable? You're going to see these things all over larger cities, especially as you begin to see cities building out the infrastructure to support them (charging stations and such).
Deacon923
Scooter Banks
Like I said before, if Tesla can pack enough performance and luxury into the Model III so that it competes with a 3 series or an Audi A4, and stick a $35K price tag on it, that's a true game changer. The Model S is for the 1%, but tons of people who don't make that much money are driving around in leased BMWs and Audis. The fuel savings would make a serious difference to those people at that price point. He could sell a boatload of cars like that. I would not bet against him given the track record so far.
Deacon923
Scooter Banks
My boss, who is not a car guy at all, just raves about this thing. It corners like a dream and is uber stable because the center of gravity is so low - basically, it's a big heavy battery covering the whole bottom of the car, at the level of the axles. everything from the axles up is just sheet metal, leather seats, and computers. That is not something that can be replicated with an internal combustion engine. All the big car magazines pretty much agree that it is one of the sweetest driving cars you can own.
Deadbolt
Well-known member
This kind of sums up a lot of my feelings towards this:
Why Tesla's Model 3 Could Be the Most Important Electric Car Ever
Tesla's next electric car officially has a name: The Model 3. It seems like an all-around average sedan, no crazy up-swinging falcon doors or other outlandishness. Even the $35,000 price is pedestrian. It's also what could make it as important to automotive history as the Model T.
Tesla Is Calling Their Next Car The Model 3
The Tesla Model 3 isn't quite as inspiring as the Model E – for obvious reasons – but…
To understand why that price tag is such a game-changer, you don't need to look much further than Tesla's current lineup: a two-seat convertible for $100,000, and a luxury sedan for $70,000. These are niche vehicles with limited markets, and while Tesla has exceeded its own sales targets for the less pricey Model S, that still only amounts to a paltry 23,000 cars sold in 2013. Toyota, by contrast, sold that many Camrys in the US in the first 20 days of last year.
But a $35,000 Tesla? That's Toyota Avalon or Chevy Impala money. A sub-40k car isn't a plaything for George Clooney; it's a daily driver your kid's basketball coach could buy. And it knocks down the last, most difficult hurdle that's prevented electric cars from truly hitting the mainstream.
Building a Grid
But wait! you say. The Nissan Leaf prices in the mid-twenties. The Mitsubishi i-MiEV compares favorably on price to a carton of smokes. You're right, of course. But you're forgetting about one crucial point: infrastructure.
How do you charge a Leaf or a i-MiEV? You plug it into your garage, or, if you live in a progressive city and the parking gods are smiling, you juice up at a charger-equipped parking spot. There aren't a whole lot of those around, and with both the Leaf and the i-MiEV averaging sub-100-mile battery range, you're stuck pretty close to home.
Truthfully, that's perfectly acceptable for 90 percent of the driving that 90 percent of Americans do. But that invisible extension cord feels mighty short when your neighbor's gas hog can cruise back and forth across the country as many times as its driver can afford. The Model 3, meanwhile, has an range of more than twice what its low-cost competitors can achieve.
Tesla drivers don't quite have the same ubiquitous network as drivers of dino-juice cars, but that's changing. Tesla currently has 102 Supercharger stations across North America, where drivers can top up their batteries in around 20 minutes, for free. The company promises to cover 80 percent of the U.S. population by the end of this year. Tesla drivers have completed coast-to-coast road trips by strategically stringing together Supercharger locations. It takes some serious planning, but it's possible—and a lot more convenient than finding somewhere to charge your Leaf or i-MiEV overnight every 100 miles.
Why Tesla's Model 3 Could Be the Most Important Electric Car Ever
Current Tesla Supercharger locations in the U.S. The white bubbles show the typical range a Model S driver can reach on a full charge.
Now imagine that, instead of selling a few thousand expensive luxury sedans every year, Tesla sold tens of thousands of electric cars that regular folks can afford. Electric cars with a 200-mile range that do the same job as a Honda Accord or Volkswagen Passat, that you can charge up at a nearby Supercharger station for free. That makes electric cars a lot more compelling to the average buyer—and gives Tesla even more reason to start filling in those bare zones on the Supercharger map.
Not to mention that, with Tesla opening up its patented battery tech to anyone who wants it, you might someday be able to charge that future electric Honda or VW or whatever at a Supercharger station. Plenty of Supercharger customers, and plenty of reasons to build one on every street corner and off-ramp in America.
An Electric Car That Doesn't Look Like an Appliance
In the automotive world, style is just as important as infrastructure. American buyers shun practicality when it comes in a plain, no-attitude wrapper; the 20-year popularity of SUVs was built almost entirely on fear of the minivan's emasculating effects. How does that affect electric cars? Just look: the Nissan Leaf resembles an overgrown dust buster, and the Mitsubishi i-MiEV looks like a damned golf cart when parked alongside the average American grocery-getter.
Compare those rolling cough drops to these alleged Model 3 renders published by Auto Express. Even if the real Model 3 doesn't look exactly like this, it's sure to have the same kind of Tesla design language you see here. That sultry, delicious design language.
Now that's a car you'd be proud to sign a three-year lease on.
Fit To a T
It's no coincidence how Tesla timed this. First it brought out the Roadster, a fast but somewhat shoddy first attempt at an electric car. Next came the Model S: refined and well-developed enough that both Motor Trend and Automobile Magazine named it 2013's car of the year. All the while, Tesla built an infrastructure of charging stations that made these expensive machines more real-world friendly.
Now the foundation has been laid. The infrastructure is sound and expanding. The brand is universally known, an American success story helmed by a geek-culture hero with larger-than-life pockets. Tesla is poised to go from a household name to an appliance in every household, and the Model 3 is how that happens.
Cranking out commuter cars for the stable middle class doesn't seem like a rockstar move when you're building rockets and picking out grave sites on Mars. But Musk knows that an affordable, practical electric car will do for 21st century motoring what Henry Ford's affordable, practical gasoline-powered car did for 20th century roads.
The similarities to the Model T are worth pointing out. Ford didn't invent the car, and by 1908 when the first Model T rolled off the assembly line, four-wheeled horseless carriages were well known. But those cars were unattainably costly for average folk, and roads were still built to convey horses and carriages. The few cars that did ply America's byways were powered by anything from gasoline to electricity or even steam.
Fast forward to 1927: the last Model T rolls out of the Dearborn, Michigan plant, into a world where roads are designed for automobiles and gasoline flows from roadside pumps across the land. There's plenty of competition among makers of affordable cars—competition that sprang up in response to Ford and the Model T.
Our grandkids will still learn about the Model T, how it permanently changed the way America looked and functioned. But I'm betting they'll also learn about another car, one associated with the seismic shift that turned us away from dinosaur-powered vehicles. I'm betting they'll be talking about the Model 3.
Why Tesla's Model 3 Could Be the Most Important Electric Car Ever
Tesla's next electric car officially has a name: The Model 3. It seems like an all-around average sedan, no crazy up-swinging falcon doors or other outlandishness. Even the $35,000 price is pedestrian. It's also what could make it as important to automotive history as the Model T.
Tesla Is Calling Their Next Car The Model 3
The Tesla Model 3 isn't quite as inspiring as the Model E – for obvious reasons – but…
To understand why that price tag is such a game-changer, you don't need to look much further than Tesla's current lineup: a two-seat convertible for $100,000, and a luxury sedan for $70,000. These are niche vehicles with limited markets, and while Tesla has exceeded its own sales targets for the less pricey Model S, that still only amounts to a paltry 23,000 cars sold in 2013. Toyota, by contrast, sold that many Camrys in the US in the first 20 days of last year.
But a $35,000 Tesla? That's Toyota Avalon or Chevy Impala money. A sub-40k car isn't a plaything for George Clooney; it's a daily driver your kid's basketball coach could buy. And it knocks down the last, most difficult hurdle that's prevented electric cars from truly hitting the mainstream.
Building a Grid
But wait! you say. The Nissan Leaf prices in the mid-twenties. The Mitsubishi i-MiEV compares favorably on price to a carton of smokes. You're right, of course. But you're forgetting about one crucial point: infrastructure.
How do you charge a Leaf or a i-MiEV? You plug it into your garage, or, if you live in a progressive city and the parking gods are smiling, you juice up at a charger-equipped parking spot. There aren't a whole lot of those around, and with both the Leaf and the i-MiEV averaging sub-100-mile battery range, you're stuck pretty close to home.
Truthfully, that's perfectly acceptable for 90 percent of the driving that 90 percent of Americans do. But that invisible extension cord feels mighty short when your neighbor's gas hog can cruise back and forth across the country as many times as its driver can afford. The Model 3, meanwhile, has an range of more than twice what its low-cost competitors can achieve.
Tesla drivers don't quite have the same ubiquitous network as drivers of dino-juice cars, but that's changing. Tesla currently has 102 Supercharger stations across North America, where drivers can top up their batteries in around 20 minutes, for free. The company promises to cover 80 percent of the U.S. population by the end of this year. Tesla drivers have completed coast-to-coast road trips by strategically stringing together Supercharger locations. It takes some serious planning, but it's possible—and a lot more convenient than finding somewhere to charge your Leaf or i-MiEV overnight every 100 miles.
Why Tesla's Model 3 Could Be the Most Important Electric Car Ever
Current Tesla Supercharger locations in the U.S. The white bubbles show the typical range a Model S driver can reach on a full charge.
Now imagine that, instead of selling a few thousand expensive luxury sedans every year, Tesla sold tens of thousands of electric cars that regular folks can afford. Electric cars with a 200-mile range that do the same job as a Honda Accord or Volkswagen Passat, that you can charge up at a nearby Supercharger station for free. That makes electric cars a lot more compelling to the average buyer—and gives Tesla even more reason to start filling in those bare zones on the Supercharger map.
Not to mention that, with Tesla opening up its patented battery tech to anyone who wants it, you might someday be able to charge that future electric Honda or VW or whatever at a Supercharger station. Plenty of Supercharger customers, and plenty of reasons to build one on every street corner and off-ramp in America.
An Electric Car That Doesn't Look Like an Appliance
In the automotive world, style is just as important as infrastructure. American buyers shun practicality when it comes in a plain, no-attitude wrapper; the 20-year popularity of SUVs was built almost entirely on fear of the minivan's emasculating effects. How does that affect electric cars? Just look: the Nissan Leaf resembles an overgrown dust buster, and the Mitsubishi i-MiEV looks like a damned golf cart when parked alongside the average American grocery-getter.
Compare those rolling cough drops to these alleged Model 3 renders published by Auto Express. Even if the real Model 3 doesn't look exactly like this, it's sure to have the same kind of Tesla design language you see here. That sultry, delicious design language.
Now that's a car you'd be proud to sign a three-year lease on.
Fit To a T
It's no coincidence how Tesla timed this. First it brought out the Roadster, a fast but somewhat shoddy first attempt at an electric car. Next came the Model S: refined and well-developed enough that both Motor Trend and Automobile Magazine named it 2013's car of the year. All the while, Tesla built an infrastructure of charging stations that made these expensive machines more real-world friendly.
Now the foundation has been laid. The infrastructure is sound and expanding. The brand is universally known, an American success story helmed by a geek-culture hero with larger-than-life pockets. Tesla is poised to go from a household name to an appliance in every household, and the Model 3 is how that happens.
Cranking out commuter cars for the stable middle class doesn't seem like a rockstar move when you're building rockets and picking out grave sites on Mars. But Musk knows that an affordable, practical electric car will do for 21st century motoring what Henry Ford's affordable, practical gasoline-powered car did for 20th century roads.
The similarities to the Model T are worth pointing out. Ford didn't invent the car, and by 1908 when the first Model T rolled off the assembly line, four-wheeled horseless carriages were well known. But those cars were unattainably costly for average folk, and roads were still built to convey horses and carriages. The few cars that did ply America's byways were powered by anything from gasoline to electricity or even steam.
Fast forward to 1927: the last Model T rolls out of the Dearborn, Michigan plant, into a world where roads are designed for automobiles and gasoline flows from roadside pumps across the land. There's plenty of competition among makers of affordable cars—competition that sprang up in response to Ford and the Model T.
Our grandkids will still learn about the Model T, how it permanently changed the way America looked and functioned. But I'm betting they'll also learn about another car, one associated with the seismic shift that turned us away from dinosaur-powered vehicles. I'm betting they'll be talking about the Model 3.
2&2 Slider To Leyritz
Well-known member
Yeah, but the reason most people not making much money can afford to lease those cars is because of their high residual values. A Beamer or an Audi can go 10+ years and 200k miles without any major repairs and while maintaining performance, which is what drives that high residual. To compete on those leases, Tesla would have to establish that the car is going to have that same longevity, which is tough to do until the track record gets established, especially if you know the battery needs to be replaced around year 8. (Though there is probably upside that it could be an upgrade if the batter 8 years from now is significantly more advanced than the one now.)
ImTheCaptain
I disagree with you
um, neither one of those vehicles can go 200k without significant and expensive repairs
Deadbolt
Well-known member
Why would you need to know the residuals for 10+years/200K miles for a three year lease?
smallbigtall
jon gruden's haircut
Have you looked at the used market for the Tesla? It's practically nonexistent, and not for lack of demand. The cheapest one on Autotrader right now is $66,000, and there are just four in the entire country below $70,000. The residual values for Teslas will hold up just fine. And given the relative simplicity of the build compared to a internal combustion engine, I can't imagine that the longevity of the Tesla would be any worse.
And from what I can tell, the majority of leased German cars aren't the A8, 7-series or S-class in the Model S camp; they're the A4, 3-series, and C-class in the Model 3 camp.
I have a 2006 camry with 160k miles on it i'm planning to drive in to the ground.