Tesla's long-awaited mass-market car, the Model 3, now has a price and debut plan courtesy of the company's founder, Elon Musk, who posted the details to Twitter on Wednesday.
The $35,000 price is just what was expected, and Tesla is well known for unveiling its cars well before they are available to buy. Still, it will likely disappoint many that a cheaper Tesla won't arrive until 2017 at the very earliest.
And they haven't been hitting their reduction in battery cost milestones for quite a while. They had to bring in an outside expert a few months back, but haven't heard about any progress since then.
My gut tells me they won't be able to hit their stated price/range by their target date. So either expect a higher price or another delay.
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The Model 3 (no letter?? What about ccoonnssiissttaannccyy??? ) is the reigning hope for corporate solvency. With the impending competition by the time it gets here, it had better be stellar.
Assuming the current model S has a (way overpriced) $35,000 battery, and if Panasonic's new Gigafactory somehow magically starts producing batteries for free, the (still unprofitable) model S would sell for over $65,000. Now, the current Model S is a pretty simple design, and not extremely luxurious, or extremely large, but maybe (assuming some HUGE "economies of scale") they could shave another $10,000 off that for a model 3. That still leaves a cost of over $55,000 to build this new car.
If they're going to sell a bunch more cars at $20,000 less than they cost to build......Tesla needs to find a LOT more people to buy a LOT more stock.
And while Tesla has been able to sell their existing cars in a segment where there is no competition, the Model 3 is aimed straight at one of the most competitive segments in the market. Even at $35,000, it's going to be a tough sell.
Wow...And I thought GM was bad about unveiling 9 months to a year before actually making the car available. They've got nothing on ol' Elon!
In all seriousness, I've never been in the "anti-Tesla" crowd, but have been skeptical as to whether or not they're going to make it on their own. And news like this convinces me even more that Tesla's going to end up being purchased by a larger automaker, or at the very least, become part of a very significant partnership with one.
Tesla can't make it on their own. They were heavily subsidized by the government, yet they still can't seem to make a profit. I'm assuming that the fiscal health of the company is terribly, which is why Musk tries to keep financial records/sales numbers hidden from investors.
History will look back at Tesla as all smoke and mirrors, mark my words.
CAFE itself isn't a bad idea, but the sky high MPG averages the companies have to meet make it ridiculous. It should exist, but it needs to be toned down IMHO.
So based on how accurate previous Tesla info has been this car will cost at least 50k and be available in 2020.
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