Steel body complaints

[irvineboy]

Naysayers of the Model 3 are staying away because of the heavy steel body. Aren't most mercedes and bmw and audis all steel body? I think prius and volt are all steel as well. I think only higher end cars like aston martin and ferrari are aluminum, which is why they cost so much more.

 

[manitou820]

Ford F150 is now aluminum and I believe most BMW's are aluminum. It's pretty common today. Part cost isn't as much a factor with aluminum anymore, but the tooling is much more expensive and takes longer to develop/build. But I don't see necessarily as a negative for the Model 3.

 

[Zaphod]

Who even said it will be a steel body? Can't speak towards BMW and Mercedes, but Audi has been using plenty of aluminum in their cars for years.

 

[tdelta1000]

Look at the cost of an aluminium F150. The all steel body Model 3 is not an issue with me.

 

[Tanquen]

Who even said it will be a steel body? Can't speak towards BMW and Mercedes, but Audi has been using plenty of aluminum in their cars for years.

Tesla/Musk has said that they have done or looked at doing it in a way that saved on cost but did not hurt weight.

 

[ggnykk]

Ford F150 is now aluminum and I believe most BMW's are aluminum. It's pretty common today. Part cost isn't as much a factor with aluminum anymore, but the tooling is much more expensive and takes longer to develop/build. But I don't see necessarily as a negative for the Model 3.

Most cars nowadays are "hybrid" with combination of steel and aluminium. Vast majority of them has a lot more steel than aluminium. All-aluminium cars are still very rare.

 

[Bangor Bob]

Huge chunks of the Prius body are aluminum. Very nice to have in the salt belt.

 

[MitchMitch]

Is this the Super-Man vs batman thread ?

 

[Transepoch]

Simple solution is to just go all titanium, right? Then you don't need a separate undercarriage shield.

 

[Trnsl8r]

There was some commentary on that in Another test ride - Motor Trend but quite unspecific. Apparently it's a mix, with a slight majority of steel, as I understood it.

 

[Tanquen]

There was some commentary on that in Another test ride - Motor Trend but quite unspecific. Apparently it's a mix, with a slight majority of steel, as I understood it.

Yes, like they have said a few times. I was mainly wondering about the body panels for cost of repairs for small scratches dents. Like the Model S when they're trying to charge 15 grand for a rear quarter panel repair.

 

[ImEric]

the BMW i series uses a lot of Aluminum as well as Carbon Fiber.

 

[irvineboy]

Tesla reps told me Model 3 is steel body. To keep the costs down, they could not use aluminum like the Model S was built upon.

 

[TSLAholic]

It has also been said that steel has different crumple properties from aluminum, and was necessary to improve frontal crash test ratings given a smaller front crumple zone and the fact that the front seat passengers are placed a good bit closer to the front of the interior.

 

[AudubonB]

To the extent that your premise is correct: that naysayers are staying away....I don't believe I'm going out on a very brittle limb to suggest that many naysayers are searching for reasons to justify their saynays. Those same persons would have chimed in had Tesla revealed that the Model 3 was all steel, or all aluminum.

Now, during the ride clips that were posted during the Model 3 reveal, we heard that the Model 3 was a mix of both - there was zero specific commentary regarding how much of the body and how much of the frame/chassis was either. Each has its benefits and detractions: challenges to production, to compatibility with each other, to costs - both upfront and over the long term, to weight, to durability under variety of circumstances, to repairs....

I believe that your premise is flawed, which means no correct response directly can be made.

 

[Jeff N]

The Bolt EV uses aluminum for the doors, hood, liftgate, two front crossmembers and then high strength steel for the unibody.

 

[ggnykk]

I would take steel over aluminum any days. Steel is cheaper to repair, harder to break, cheaper car to buy, easier to produce. And hey, for those who are living in bad neighborhood, steel car is much better bullet proof than aluminum car.