Tesla Model 3 unveiled

Evil_Clown

Tesla Model 3 announced

$35k in the US
Minimum range of 215 miles
Basic model will do 0-60mph in under 6 seconds
Fits 5 adults

Tesla Model 3

Ush1

Can they not make the touchpad blend in a bit better to the dash? Looks like a hack that someone stuck on.

Vicxas

If it works it could really give Electrical car a boost as a viable alternative to Petrol/Diesel.

Stallingrad

Wow, very nice, and hopefully within reach for most people one day soon. it's staggering what Tesla has achieved in such a short period of time. Conventional manufacturers must be in a tailspin. You can't help but feel bad for manufactures like Alfa, struggling to bring the Giulia to the market. It's a dinosaur already, old tech draped in (questionable) italian styling and heritage. It's like Nokia when Apple arrived on the scene. That ship has sailed, its all about the tech and power trains now and Tesla is king. Interesting times.

Alun

Ush1 wrote: »

Can they not make the touchpad blend in a bit better to the dash? Looks like a hack that someone stuck on.

Not only that, I'd imagine it'd be very distracting having an illuminated screen that big in your field of view.

geotrig

I think they will need to sort their drive train issue before it can be seen as an success, i think its in the 80+ range ....but ah look shiny new hip stuff :pac:

Ush1

Alun wrote: »

Not only that, I'd imagine it'd be very distracting having an illuminated screen that big in your field of view.

Also have read they are not planning to integrate with Apple Carplay or Android Auto. That's disappointing.

Nody

Stallingrad wrote: »

Wow, very nice, and hopefully within reach for most people one day soon. it's staggering what Tesla has achieved in such a short period of time. Conventional manufacturers must be in a tailspin. You can't help but feel bad for manufactures like Alfa, struggling to bring the Giulia to the market. It's a dinosaur already, old tech draped in (questionable) italian styling and heritage. It's like Nokia when Apple arrived on the scene. That ship has sailed, its all about the tech and power trains now and Tesla is king. Interesting times.

Except Apple actually makes a very hefty profit while Tesla has lost money for 13 years (with one quarter of a very small profit) and counting.

Mc-BigE

i don't mind the centre screen too much.

whats the story with the front grille, or lack of it?, looks weird to me.

How much will it be for sale in Ireland i wonder?, ( if it will be for sale at all here)

Revenue will need to come up with a plan to make more money from VRT for this car lol.

same as they did with the 1.3 litre mazda RX8

come on Tesla, when are you going to open up in Ireland and put some superchargers in Dublin,Cork,Waterford,Galway etc.

goochy

Tesla are planning to open here , wonder where they will go ? somewhere around Dublin 2 shopping/ office area but are not going to pay Grafton st. rents.

Stallingrad

Nody wrote: »

Except Apple actually makes a very hefty profit while Tesla has lost money for 13 years (with one quarter of a very small profit) and counting.

I'm not sure how you could set up car company from scratch and not loose money for years. The investment is astronomical, Tesla are playing the long game building market share and the brand. They are like Apple in that they have transformed dull devices you tolerate (EV's) into something very desirable.

Stallingrad

Mc-BigE wrote: »

whats the story with the front grille, or lack of it?, looks weird to me.

I like it. Grills are increasingly absurd in size, and this car does not need any cooling. It's design is function led and I like that.

ongarite

Mc-BigE wrote: »

whats the story with the front grille, or lack of it?, looks weird to me.
.

Doesn't need a radiator grill or cooling in front like ICE engine.

Sabre Man

This should be merged with the Model 3 thread in the Electric Vehicles & Hybrids subforum.

Mc-BigE

i understand it doesn't need a grille, but it will take a few days to get used to the look of it without one, i'm sure with time i will love the look of it.

i suppose the main question about the whole electric car for the masses is:

if this car is bought in the 1000s or 100000s in a small country like ours, will the electricity grid be able to handle all the charging that will probably happen between 6pm and midnight in most peoples home.

Will you be able to find a charge point that is vacant, if you need to during the day or if you forget to plug it in at night. ( Tesla auto plug in or inducton plate charging would also be a good idea)

time will tell about electric cars, put here in ireland with expensive fuel prices (compared to usa, etc) a VRT based on emissions, then this type of car could be a good option. Just depends on how much the revenue will add to the 35,000USD price

dashoonage

Does anyone do a hitch for it ?

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

frozenfrozen

Taking the piss with the low profile tyres. Looks nice otherwise. Won't be long before someone is unlocking features which would usually cost several thousand. Will be interesting to see if addons like self driving can be bought after purchase, meaning that you could buy the car and not pay VRT on self driving etc

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

cruizer101

Yeah the no grill thing I'm not sure about, I get that it doesn't need one and it would in fact probably have a negative impact on it in terms of aerodynamics but I think it needs something. Even if the logo was dropped down to the front panel, just looks odd without anything there.

Otherwise lovely looking car

Mc-BigE

If the revenue gave some sort of BIK rebate or reduction, it could also be a good option as company car, thats if you do less than 215 miles a day

if you do more then this, stick to your company diesel.

Stallingrad

Never liked the Tesla grill, it looks contrived and dated but was probably a necessary evil to try and give the cars a corporate face people could identify with, just like every other luxury car.



Having said that a number plate is going to butcher that clean front on the 3.

Cabaal

Mc-BigE wrote: »

whats the story with the front grille, or lack of it?, looks weird to me.
.

You don't need to bother with a grill if you don't have an engine that requires the air intake i guess

nokia69

stesaurus

Mc-BigE wrote: »

i don't mind the centre screen too much.

whats the story with the front grille, or lack of it?, looks weird to me.

How much will it be for sale in Ireland i wonder?, ( if it will be for sale at all here)

Revenue will need to come up with a plan to make more money from VRT for this car lol.

same as they did with the 1.3 litre mazda RX8

come on Tesla, when are you going to open up in Ireland and put some superchargers in Dublin,Cork,Waterford,Galway etc.

4 Superchargers are planned, Dublin, Cork Belfast and somewhere else. Store will apparently be in Dundrum towards the end of this year. They also added Ireland to the pre-order section last night so you can now put down a deposit.

Sabre Man wrote: »

This should be merged with the Model 3 thread in the Electric Vehicles & Hybrids subforum.

I hope it doesn't. It will die a death and it's nice to see different opinions. We're already EV converts over in the other section.

Special Circumstances

Mc-BigE wrote: »

i suppose the main question about the whole electric car for the masses is:

if this car is bought in the 1000s or 100000s in a small country like ours, will the electricity grid be able to handle all the charging that will probably happen between 6pm and midnight in most peoples home.

YES
Not likely to happen in a timeframe that would pose problems

Donnelly117

Mc-BigE wrote: »

if this car is bought in the 1000s or 100000s in a small country like ours, will the electricity grid be able to handle all the charging that will probably happen between 6pm and midnight in most peoples home.

Our grid is connected to the UK grid so supply/generation wouldnt be a problem.

Hulk Hands

Nody wrote: »

Except Apple actually makes a very hefty profit while Tesla has lost money for 13 years (with one quarter of a very small profit) and counting.

Which is a nonsense point. Basically every single dollar of profit made has gone back into R&D. The share price looks healthy enough at $240 or so for a company making a loss. This will be the car that changes motoring. Very tempted to throw down the deposit now, although difficult to do it without seeing what our government do first. The model S already has the highest satisfaction rating for a car of all time, and that was only built in order to fund this one. It should be an excellent machine

stesaurus

As much as what the Greens contributed to government policy annoyed me last time they had some TD's I think it will actually be a positive thing this time. If the Government can set out some clear policies and incentives for EV's it will be fantastic. They should make it clear how long the VRT rebate and SEAI grant will last, confirm it for the next 5 years or so and put it in stone. Put some money into infrastructure, double, triple, quadruple the number of fast chargers available and put a leash on what ESB can charge for their use. Put those in place and EV's will sell themselves when everyday Joe Soaps can see how cheap to run and nice they are to drive.

glynf

If a decent specced one comes in at the same money as a 320d or 330e and the range is above 340 km, I think they will sell very well. For that kind of money it offers serious performance and I could easily live with that range even without easy access to a super charger. I be delighted to be out of a diesel, currently thinking about a Lexus IS300h but its more of a sideways move tbh. Lets hope the aftersales a nd battery warranties are decent as well.

Hulk Hands

Took the plunge and threw down a deposit. Musk tweeting every hour about how many were already signed up got to me in the end! Would know I'd be kicking myself having to wait an extra 6 months or something in 2018 if I didn't. Will surely be able to offload it to someone anyway if my circumstances change in the meantime

nokia69

The Model 3 like all electric cars will be one of the cheapest forms of transport possible

Anyone spending 50 euro+ a week on Petrol/Diesel should take a test drive in any EV with a 200+ mile range

Oafley Jones

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Which is a nonsense point. Basically every single dollar of profit made has gone back into R&D. The share price looks healthy enough at $240 or so for a company making a loss. This will be the car that changes motoring. Very tempted to throw down the deposit now, although difficult to do it without seeing what our government do first. The model S already has the highest satisfaction rating for a car of all time, and that was only built in order to fund this one. It should be an excellent machine

Share price is horrendous metric to judge the intrinsic value of a company imo. They're completely over valued. I'm curious as to see if they'll succeed with the 3. This is a massive test for them. It's far easier to disrupt the high end whereas suceeding at the 3s price point is an massively difficult task in financial terms. I'm still not sure Tesla have the ability to scale their operations to support it. My fear for them is the major manufacturers will just take them out.

The S's satisfaction rating is something that needs close inspection. A lot of that came from early adopters who were super invested in the idea of the car and were overlooking various (often serious) issues. It's still poor to average in terms of reliability. This is another worry for me. Tesla could afford to swap out the entire drivetrains of those early S because of low volume. They can't have a **** up like that with the 3.

Nose aside (which looks bare) I really like it. Part of me is tempted to put down the grand. But I won't buy a first generation Apple product, so I'm certainly not to be a Guinea pig for tesla.

Hulk Hands

Share price (relative to how many released and the initial price obv) is by far the best metric to judge a companies performance. As unreliable as professional traders and investors are, they're still the only ones gambling on their judgement being correct so are best placed.

The Apple comparisons couldn't be more apples and oranges. Apple are a company who output average products at the highest prices, using good marketing among other things to make as much money as possible. Musk is trying to output the best product at the lowest possible price. The specs of the car are putting it up against the 3 series and C class, and compare the prices.

One thing you can't say about Musk is that he's in it for profit. Hes trying to relocate a portion of the population to Mars in order to safeguard humanity! A move that's very likely going to cost him a fortune and few investors will touch. Being the guinea pig here doesn't feel like being shafted whatsoever. They've guaranteed prices will remain the same for years afterwards in any case

nokia69

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Share price is horrendous metric to judge the intrinsic value of a company imo. They're completely over valued. I'm curious as to see if they'll succeed with the 3. This is a massive test for them. It's far easier to disrupt the high end whereas suceeding at the 3s price point is an massively difficult task in financial terms. I'm still not sure Tesla have the ability to scale their operations to support it. My fear for them is the major manufacturers will just take them out.

How do you mean take them out, do you mean take them over ?

the way I see it Tesla will have no problem selling 500K model 3s a year, in fact I think they could sell far more, and I don't see any car matching it in the short term, because Tesla have the advantage of the Supercharger network

Oafley Jones wrote: »

The S's satisfaction rating is something that needs close inspection. A lot of that came from early adopters who were super invested in the idea of the car and were overlooking various (often serious) issues. It's still poor to average in terms of reliability. This is another worry for me. Tesla could afford to swap out the entire drivetrains of those early S because of low volume. They can't have a **** up like that with the 3.

There were some problems with the early Model S off the line, TBF I think thats to be expected, the cars being built now are far better in almost every way

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Nose aside (which looks bare) I really like it. Part of me is tempted to put down the grand. But I won't buy a first generation Apple product, so I'm certainly not to be a Guinea pig for tesla.

But this is not the first gen product, that was the roadster, by the time the Model 3 reaches Ireland there will be well over 100K of them on the road in the US and any problem will be fixed, I also expect a pretty good warranty, 8 year infinite miles might be possible

Oafley Jones

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Share price (relative to how many released and the initial price obv) is by far the best metric to judge a companies performance. As unreliable as professional traders and investors are, they're still the only ones gambling on their judgement being correct so are best placed.

Anyone can be an investor. I could throw up an awful lot of companies record share prices in 2006 that no longer exist. Share price is pretty much the sum of investors future expectations on returns. It can be completely decoupled from the fundamentals. It's a seriously ****ty way of judging performance.

Hulk Hands

Hulk Hands wrote: »

Share price (relative to how many released and the initial price obv) is by far the best metric to judge a companies performance. .....

I posted about the share price earlier in other parts of boards....

Augeo wrote: »

....... I'd be personally very reluctant to buy a share at $240 when it was $144 6/7 weeks ago

Jan it was $240, early Feb $144 and now back to $240, I don't think the companies performance in the last 3 months is any way correlating with the share price

Augeo wrote: »

The way I look at this is that in two/three years Tesla need sales in excess of $7B to deliver on the $240 share price.

I think in 4/5 years time Tesla shares will be under $100.

Current share price is presuming every one of the 200k orders (+ another lash) turns into a $35k sale within 3 years. Staff etc all have to be hired, trained bla bla bla. Costs are going to rocket for Tesla in the short term before much cash comes in.

I wouldn't really trust Tesla to get that many cars out the door in that time frame.

On the car, looks dated externally, like a Mazda 3 from 10 years ago side profile wise. Performance and range figures are impressive.

I'd sooner be in a 2018 1.5 turbo Civic in two years time though

cowboyjoe

Saw plenty of the Model S' on the streets in San Fran last autumn. I thought it was a Jaguar or Aston Martin sedan the first time I walked by one, very cool looking. If the model 3 looks and performs fuel efficient wise like the model S and comes to Ireland, I'd be very very tempted to trade up.

nokia69

Augeo wrote: »

Current share price is presuming every one of the 200k orders (+ another lash) turns into a $35k sale within 3 years. Staff etc all have to be hired, trained bla bla bla. Costs are going to rocket for Tesla in the short term before much cash comes in.

The first 200K cars will cost more than $35k, they plan to fill the dual motor large battery all option orders first, far more profit at the high end, it looks to me like the model S will be a success, they won't be able to make them fast enough

ba_barabus

Front end looks unfinished

vectra

How can you pre book one not knowing the cost?

http://www.thejournal.ie/tesla-model-3-ireland-2691998-Apr2016


Some clown has turned the comments section into a Nissan leaf appreciation zone, he plans on getting another leaf ... Not a tesla in a few years.

Some craic to go for pints with.

stesaurus

Augeo wrote: »

http://www.thejournal.ie/tesla-model-3-ireland-2691998-Apr2016


Some clown has turned the comments section into a Nissan leaf appreciation zone, he plans on getting another leaf ... Not a tesla in a few years.

Some craic to go for pints with.

That's probably madlad. Didn't seem that bad to me but get your drift.
There's a lot of ****e talk in the comments and just plain bs that should be challenged though.

stesaurus

vectra wrote: »

How can you pre book one not knowing the cost?

You won't know the cost for at least two years also. Until you're invited to configure the car for its build and add in all the extras you won't know the cost. Tesla have a huge amount of configurable options.
Then also there's the ambiguity about what grants are available at that time. VRT is not currently free on an EV and instead you get a 5k rebate so if you configure something really expensive you will pay VRT as 5k won't cover it.
I'll be holding off on pre-ordering due to this but I'm definitely interested.

thierry14

nokia69 wrote: »

The Model 3 like all electric cars will be one of the cheapest forms of transport possible

Anyone spending 50 euro+ a week on Petrol/Diesel should take a test drive in any EV with a 200+ mile range

You will get plenty of diesel/petrol for 43k

Honesty the model 3 is still too expensive, by about 20k for it not to be a niche market

Biggest sellers here are half its price. Golf, Corrola etc.

Tesla needs a model 1.

Wibbs

Looking beyond the Muskovite's and their fandom, it's a nice enough car alright. The lack of grill doesn't throw me, as Ba_Barabus noted though it looks unfinished. We had a grill in place but removed it in photoshop and ran with it vibe to it. The landscape screen looks like it was glued on at the last minute. Is such a sized screen even legal in the EU? I thought there were limits as far as screen size in the drivers eyeliner?

Is it a good investment beyond the hype? Not nearly so sure there. Tesla as a company doesn't exactly look too solid and has already needed bailouts. Scaling up to the levels of a Ford or Honda is going to be interesting to say the least. Plus the other car manufacturers are eyeing the same market but holding back. Hubris? Lack of foresight? Or maybe it's prudence and they're waiting for the Tesla hype to build up enough of a market that they can just steamroller into with their huge resources.

Blazer

Stallingrad wrote: »

I like it. Grills are increasingly absurd in size, and this car does not need any cooling. It's design is function led and I like that.

aerodynamics really...last thing you want in a battery driven part is a headwind affecting battery life. With no grill the car is more aerodynamic and hence less affected by wind. I've head of Nissan leaf owners driving up the motorway into a strong headwind and watching their battery life in horror

thierry14

Wibbs wrote: »

The landscape screen looks like it was glued on at the last minute. Is such a sized screen even legal in the EU?

Calafornian car alright, wouldn't feel too safe driving around certain parts with a glass roof lol, Halloween ðŸŽ႒

Japs and Germans have to have something ready to combat this, can't see how they can't build something as good and cheaper with R&D they have.

Good point on Tesla being Sega until the giants Sony and Microsoft came along.

Tesla might have over shot themselves, do they have the resources if something goes wrong and costs spiral, like they always do?

Wibbs

thierry14 wrote: »

Calafornian car alright, wouldn't feel too safe driving around certain parts with a glass roof lol, Halloween

though given it's an electric car you would think that a glass roof in any sorta hot country would be debatable. There's a reason why convertibles tend to be more popular in more temperate regions(IIRC the UK buy the most in the world?). If you're driving in a glasshouse this would require the air con to stop passenger meltage, which would in turn require using more power?

Japs and Germans have to have something ready to combat this, can't see how they can't build something as good and cheaper with R&D they have.

Oh you can be sure they do and the R&D is but a small part of it. It's the industrial scales and dealer networks they have at their disposal that could make the biggest difference. I always wondered why Tesla didn't get into bed with one of the big boys and use their dealer networks? That would make more sense. Sure going it alone is cool and all, but… The big lads are likely all too happy to see Tesla spending money in building charging infrastructure. They're likely taking the position that pioneers take the arrows, settlers take the land.

And lest we forget behemoths like Apple and Google are getting into the personal transport business.

That's before we get to their decidedly lacklustre efforts in the world's largest merging electric car market, China. Because they don't get into part assembly of their cars in China like others, they don't get the subsidies, which makes their cars more expensive. They went through three or four local managers to boot. They need to get on board with China or they could be boned.

Good point on Tesla being Sega until the giants Sony and Microsoft came along.

That's a much better analogy alright.

Tesla might have over shot themselves, do they have the resources if something goes wrong and costs spiral, like they always do?

I doubt it. Maybe they've become too big to fail? I dunno. I certainly can't see the US government handing out any more loans/bailouts like they have in the past, like in 2009 when their costs overran and targets slipped ever backwards. The private sector pretty much stayed away and the government stepped in with nigh on half a billion quid of public monies. That won't happen again, or at least the lobbying against it will be enormous.

I admire Musk's hutzpah and charisma and he has it in spades and he's put his money where his mouth is too and has gathered a very loyal fan base with an attendant reality distortion field(QV the near messianic reports for previous models). However hopefully he keeps a watch on believing his own hype and how this will translate into real world rubber on the road is another matter. He may do it and I hope he does, but I'd not be investing in him myself.

What I can see is initial take-up by the fans and early adopters, which will grow confidence, but not enough to fill the coffers. Bankruptcy looms and someone like a GM will buy them in as a niche brand selling higher end electric cars, while bringing in their own midrange stuff.

Sabre Man

Wibbs wrote: »

Is such a sized screen even legal in the EU? I thought there were limits as far as screen size in the drivers eyeliner?

It's completely legal. The screen in Model S and X is much bigger, about the same size as two iPads side by side.

nokia69

Sabre Man wrote: »

It's completely legal. The screen in Model S and X is much bigger, about the same size as two iPads side by side.

But in the Model 3 the screen position is very different to the S and X, it may be OK but from the videos it does look a bit distracting