A more basic Model 3 - Will it happen?

[diplomat33]

it stands to reason that Tesla already considered this when they designed the Model 3. I think we can safely assume the $35k is the cheapest that Tesla was willing to go without sacrificing the Tesla brand. After all, there are some features that are so characteristic of the Tesla brand that Tesla was not going to give them up. It's that balance between "affordable" but still a "premium electric car". Tesla prides itself in the active safety features. Tesla is not going to do a car with no driving hardware that can't even do automatic emergency braking. That's just a basic must have safety feature. Tesla is also not going to compromise on the center screen since that is a part of the Tesla brand. it's what makes the car a real Tesla.

 

[vickh]

I think the biggest obstacle to that is brand identity. It would be akin to asking Lexus to sell a Corolla… They would probably sell, but harmful to the overall brand. Cadillac and Lincoln are examples of luxury brands they competed downmarket with badge-engineered versions, and it didn’t work out well for them. Cadillac has been clawing their way back for the last 15 years, and Lincoln still has a ways to go.

As a consumer I think it would be fantastic, but it would certainly reduce the allure of the Tesla brand. Which would probably be harmful to the overall business, so I don’t think it’s a great idea.

If they can scale the production capacity, I could see the introduction of a more mainstream brand making sense.

I agree. The 35K SR is as low as they'll go. and that too for future software upgraders (like me just waiting to do it at the right a la carte price)

 

[Skellington]

To the degree that they are battery or assembly line limited, it makes sense to sell the most expensive cars possible within that capacity.

That's why they aren't selling the LR RWD anymore. If they can get those customers to buy an AWD, they get more sales / profit for using up the same number of batteries / time on the assembly line.

(And yes, most of the costs are in the battery pack and motor. For very many things, electronic control is likely significantly cheaper and more reliable than dealing with mechanical controls. i.e. a wire to a solenoid controlled by an existing computer is vastly cheaper than a lock with a key, or even a switch connected to the solenoid.)

 

[vickh]

Also there was a proposal to have the 35K SR have cloth seats, metal roof etc. It would have been more expensive to make and they went with standardization.

 

[airpor41]

Regarding changing the roof to metal: My understanding is that the glass is stiffer, lighter and thinner than a metal roof could be. I dislike having a giant window over my head in the summer but I can live with the engineering trade-offs that were made here. In particular, I am certain a metal roof would be considerably thicker and I am very tall, so that would be worse.

 

[cybrwzrd]

Heated seats - Removing the 10 heated seat pads per car. Possible, savings would be fairly minimal.

Leather seats - Change to cloth is more affordable. Additional production line required to make cloth seats, so you have to weight initial outlay vs. extra profit in the cloth seats over the leather seats, and then also factor in how many of this lower end model you would sell. Time for return on investment / break-even is likely to be really long.

Tablet size - reduce to 8 or 10 inch, enough to display the speed/gear, backup cam, basic radio. Remove nav/internet radio. Massive cost increase to stock an additional part, and have to redesign all of the software to run on the smaller screen.

Glass Roof- Remove and change to solid metal roof. Possible, but cost overhead to re-certify roll-over safety and manufacture new metal molds to stamp out new roof part is huge. May not save much in cost anyway.

Auto wipers- Not sure if there is an actual sensor that controls this or if it's just done through the camera system but either way it could go. No cost, done through cameras and AP computer.

Power/memory seats- change to manual/mechanical. Have to stock another model of seat, see the Leather seats comment above.

No Autopilot function - Completely remove extra AP computer. 7 extra cameras could go, all but backup cam. 8 Cameras if you count the non-functioning interior camera. Can't do it -- all safety features such as automatic emergency braking, lane departure avoidance, side collision avoidance, etc. are all dependent on AP cameras and AP computer.

Remove parking (ultrasonic) sensors - Not needed since no AP anyway. Can't remove -- needed for driving safety features.

Standard cruise only - Remove front radar. Can't remove -- needed for driving safety features.

Charge port door- Remove motor & make manually hinged. Have to stock another part, time for ROI/break-even is long.

Climate vents- Add manual adjusters. Massive cost -- requires redesign of entire dash and HVAC system.

Frunk- remove liners, make this utilitarian only with manual cable release.
Trunk - remove solenoid & add mechanical release. Possible, but cost savings likely to be minimal.

Remove footwell lightning - I always have mine off anyway. Cost savings of leaving the bulbs out is probably pennies.

Remove one usb in center console. Probably cost increase, as you're saving only pennies in parts, but need to stock different assembly.

Remove gloss looking center console/door trim- from a manufacturing standpoint regular matt black would likely be lower cost. Pennies in savings, not worth stocking second part.

Remove wood dash trim, go-to basic black. See above.

Aero covers- do not include with basic models. Range will already be low on low-cost model due to smaller battery, removing Aero covers reduces range further.

Perhaps a simpler key system of some kind? Phone-as-key already saves money by not including keyfob.


I also agree with posters above -- this type of vehicle should not be sold under the Tesla brand. You would need a downscale brand for this. Probably would be a good idea anyway, since if you really wanted to make an EV that's as low a cost as possible, a complete redesign from the ground up is what you'd want to do. This is probably viable only after the battery manufacturing costs come down with volume, not before. A 20% reduction in battery cost is probably more than the total savings in ALL of the modifications you cited above.

Can tell that you also work in manufacturing, because I had all the same thoughts.

 

[RC2785]

Some of those were part of the original plans for the standard range model such as a metal roof, cloth seats, manual adjusted seating, no usb's in the center console. But they decided not to go through with that because it would add complexity to the production line and slow things down.

 

[Dan203]

The easiest way to make it cheaper is to make batteries cheaper. Almost everything else in an EV has already reached peak production and is as cheap as it's going to get, but the battery has a LOT of room to move. As batteries get cheaper they can offer cheaper cars with the same range or similarly priced cars with longer range. (like they’ve done with the S over the years) My guess is that they’ll likely retain the $35k price point but increase the range of the base model making it a more compelling option.