9 years ago
14
Why Tesla's Model 3 May Fail
Tesla recently confirmed that its all-electric Model 3, which is expected to have a 200-mile range between charges, will begin production in 2017. Tesla Motors TSLA -4.3% has enjoyed huge success in the ultra-luxury car market with its Model S sedan. The company has steadily ramped up production of the pricey electric car, yet demand has always exceeded supply — even though Tesla does no advertising and never offers discounts.
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Why not make a compact? Smaller, lighter bodied electric cars more attuned to city drivers who rarely travel too far. They could even sell it as a taxi fleet vehicle for cities.
Here in Norway the Tesla S has sold like hotcakes, due to the huge tax break that electric car buyers get from the government. The Tesla seems to attract asshole buyers who are more into getting a cheap sports car than caring for the environment. They seem to rival the BMW-drivers in driving too fast on narrow city streets. More sensible electric car buyers tend to go for japanese cars.
I don't know if it's me getting older and having a family or if its just me adapting to the times but my tastes in cars have definitely changed. Where before I ogled exotic sports cars or gigantic off-road behemoths, I now prefer small, nimble cars that can thrive in city commutes and handle light off-road exploring.
I have never liked big cars. As a kid I loved looking at Lamborghinis but as a grown up I never wanted any fancy car. I don't even have kids.
I think putting an "insane" button on a car is going to attract a certain driving mentality. That aside I would consider a Tesla at some point. Ive just bought a new car so it would be several years from now and Im anticipating that by then the range issues would be sorted out. Self driving doesnt attract me so much, I enjoy driving and I think at this point the sticking point around self driving cars isn't so much the technology as the thorny issue of cars making ethical decisions i.e the car has to make a decision between a. crashing into another car b. swerving in one direction to miss the car but hitting an elderly pedestrian c. swerving in another direction to miss the elderly pedestrian but hitting a child on a bike.
They made a small and light body electric car, and it was the most expensive of the line, not because it was a roadster, but because it was the first production model. Musk has stated that the process has been iterative and instead of trying to hit the main market first, he was going to target the richer market and use them as a means to fund research and development and use the trickle down affect to build cheaper cars in the future. If you notice Tesla has basically done just that with their $100K+ roadster, and the Model S that's $80K+ and the model 3 hitting around the $30-40K+ mark, next iteration will more than likely be the absolute cheapest car they can make without making some breakthroughs in battery technology, that's where the bulk of the cost is.
I forgot about the roadster! Musk's iterative process is certainly something amazing. It's such a basic, fundamental idea but, somehow, it never entered into the mindset of electric car entrepreneurs. I guess you have to have a certain attitude or personality to see such a simple way to fix the problem of funding such an ambitious goal.
I'm waiting for them to delve in to scooters or motorbikes. If I could get one or the other that could go 50-100 miles on a charge for <£5k I'd orgasm at the chance
Why not zero motorcycles?
Thank for that. I'm always looking for new electric vehicles
Guess I'll have to keep putting that dream of buying a Tesla on hold for another 10 years. I imagine at some point in the future we may see a more moderately priced all electric vehicle.
I'm hoping that opening their battery patents means we will soon(ish) see 200+ mile range cars from other manufacturers. I don't need my electric car to be a Tesla, I just need it to get over 200 miles on a charge. If I can get that from Ford for cheaper I'll be a happy camper.
I despise this thought process. I got into arguments when the Prius first came out about this. If you have a perfectly working car, even if it's got bad gas mileage, the best thing you can do for the environment is to not buy a new car. If, on the other hand, you are planning to buy a new car for other reasons, picking a Prius or Tesla becomes a better option (depending on who you talk to).
In any case, I hope this is wrong. If the Model 3 has the self driving features that are supposedly in the near future of the S, I would buy one tomorrow, even at the $50k the article talks about. I wouldn't be surprised if that isn't what keeps pushing it out: if it can be the first self-driving (or even mostly self driving) car available to the middle class, I suspect it will completely change the market.
For us that lives in the rural areas, having a car is sort of like having electricity or running water. The question for us is more like: should I have just one pickup, one pickup and a prius or one pickup and a tesla?