He said it won't be a car…the Model X is not a car. I am surprised no one thinks it will be the Model X unveiling, possibly with X70 and X100 battery sizes? The only reason I could see them investing any time/money in something other than cars/suv/etc is that they are worried about their automobile business, which isn't a good sign. With the speculation and delays of the Model X to this point, unless you are trying to draw attention away from that, it just doesn't make any sense to work on stationary storage while still not shipping the Model X. The company is called Tesla Motors, right?
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
He said it won't be a car…the Model X is not a car. I am surprised no one thinks it will be the Model X unveiling, possibly with X70 and X100 battery sizes? The only reason I could see them investing any time/money in something other than cars/suv/etc is that they are worried about their automobile business, which isn't a good sign. With the speculation and delays of the Model X to this point, unless you are trying to draw attention away from that, it just doesn't make any sense to work on stationary storage while still not shipping the Model X. The company is called Tesla Motors, right?
EarlyAdopter
Active Member
Elon has referred to the Model X as a "car" on numerous occasions, including quarterly earnings calls.
As for your question of "why stationary storage?" This has been discussed extensively over in the investors section of the forum, but it comes down to these two points:
1. The gigafactory will cost Tesla at least $3B. No matter how strong S and X sales are, they'll need more cash. That means either going back out to the capital markets to raise more, which is dilutive to share holders, or introduce a new product line to earn more cash, which is a positive ROI for investors.
2. The gigafactory is scheduled to come online in 2016, but the Model 3 won't be launched until 2017. Can't leave that giant factory idle.
Indeed, the 2.8 second tease may have been about an OTA upgrade to P85D's performance, so not necessarily a new car/bigger battery.
That said, the more recent tweet was teasing that maybe there will be something car related (a Model S doing 0-60 in 2.8 seconds) as a warm up to the 4/30 event... so I don't think it makes sense to automatically dismiss any discussion of something related to cars being revealed despite the original tweet about 4/30. Perhaps I misunderstood, but it seemed some earlier posts were ruling out anything related to cars.
Last edited:
EarlyAdopter
Active Member
True, we can't rule it out - it's certainly within Tesla's power to launch a new car and no doubt they innovate fast. I would just find it highly unlikely that as a warm up for a new product launch that was announced to not be a car, Tesla would launch a new car.
Is this something that might be detectable from a FLIR or other camera while the vehicle is under load (say on a dyno)?
- - - Updated - - -
Concur. A "product launch warmup" for another product launch seems a waste of PR opportunity (i.e. two separate events gets you more media frenzy).
A product feature or improvement definitely fits the bill for a warmup act. Examples that come to mind are acceleration improvements via firmware, announcement of new firmware features like nav enhancements, "finally" pushing features like fetch to customers, etc.
I think there will be only two initial Model X configurations, with a lower cost one coming later as all the pre-orders will be forced to buy their pricier versions.
Model X85D and Model X100D (or X105D)
That seems to make sense, likely the X85D will get ~240 miles EPA range and 0-60 in 4.9 seconds, and X100/105D would get 265-275 range EPA with a 3.6-3.9 0-60 which would be amazing for a full electric SUV.
"Warm Up Act" could be introduction of Model X specs on the website with those battery configs and an "Oh yah, 100/105kW battery availability on Model S will allow car to go 2.8s 0-60. Now on to the main event and product announcement". This way it wouldn't be a new car model announcement, just revealing new specs on existing Tesla product.
Model X85D and Model X100D (or X105D)
That seems to make sense, likely the X85D will get ~240 miles EPA range and 0-60 in 4.9 seconds, and X100/105D would get 265-275 range EPA with a 3.6-3.9 0-60 which would be amazing for a full electric SUV.
"Warm Up Act" could be introduction of Model X specs on the website with those battery configs and an "Oh yah, 100/105kW battery availability on Model S will allow car to go 2.8s 0-60. Now on to the main event and product announcement". This way it wouldn't be a new car model announcement, just revealing new specs on existing Tesla product.
EarlyAdopter, if you care to, you can read the post of mine you replied to again... it was not about launching a new car, but rather that something related to cars is worth considering as a "warmup" to the 4/30 event as Elon has teased this possibility on twitter. Funny enough, I was actually acknowledging your earlier comment that this could be about the existing P85D's improving via a software update.
Last edited:
Gasoline engines make peak power at one specific RPM. Therefore, a gasoline car can make peak power at n speeds where n is the number of gears in the transmission.
-- Doug
In a few years, every car manufacturer will probably be making BEV or PHEV vehicles. Tesla won't be as unique as it is now. I could easily see them focusing more on battery production in the future as they would be able to supply other car manufacturers with batteries as well. Also, with home stationary storage, there is a huge potential market, especially if they are able to tie it in with solar systems.
Clearly the primary subject of the event will be the stationary storage system, but you bring up a very good point about the battery sizes. Think about it. If there wasn't currently a Model S with 70kwh and 85kwh battery options, would it make any sense at all to have two battery options for a new product introduction and have them be so close to each other? 70 and 100 makes a lot more sense than 70 and 85. That is why I suspect there will be a larger battery announced with the introduction of the Model X. On the other hand, if wk057 says the 70kwh pack uses the same batteries as the 85kwh pack and there isn't any room to put more batteries in the larger pack, I'll defer to his battery knowledge.
Either way, we'll know when the Model X hits the design studio. Hopefully soon. I sold my 2014 S85 a few days ago to replace it with a car with Autopilot and possibly "D", but now I'm on hold waiting to find out if a larger battery is coming. I really hate going to the gas station every other day again.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
Elon doesn't do standalone systems - he does ecosystems. Tesla was never destined to be just a car company. I have no doubt that Elon has one vision & is revealing one piece of the puzzle at a time.
Besides, different engineering teams - working on stationary storage doesn't take away from the Model X reveal when that happens - parallel efforts. Nothing about storage says 'worried about automobile business' to me - in fact, in says 'thinking about a bigger picture'. Personally, I believe that the X and stationary storage will interact, either V2G or more.
As far as revealing the X on April 30th, nah. Right now Tesla is squeezing every PR opportunity dry. I am certain that there will be great lead up to the Model X reveal, building excitement, right to the big day. A surprise reveal would mean they're not getting maximum value from the event. The X reveal will surely be a separate event & I'm guessing we'll see the first few Founder cars delivered at that event.
Andyw2100
Well-Known Member
You know a larger battery is coming. The real question you need the answer to is when.
You are correct. I should have stated "I'm on hold waiting to find out if a larger battery is coming with the release of the Model X."
Uncle Paul
Well-Known Member
Since Elon mentioned that his announcement will not be car related, I believe it will be a spin off of the battery technology.
My prediction is that there will be few model S announcements until the X is revealed. There should be lots of running changes that will be incorporated into the X that is not currently available in the S. Since the S and X will be produced on the same chassis and assembly line, it would make sense that they share as many components as possible. I would expect to see a bunch of changes for both vehicles when they both begin to come down the production line.
Maybe new interiors, new display screens (wide screen instead of vertical). Refreshed suspensions, tire options, colors, seats, audio, etc.
My prediction is that there will be few model S announcements until the X is revealed. There should be lots of running changes that will be incorporated into the X that is not currently available in the S. Since the S and X will be produced on the same chassis and assembly line, it would make sense that they share as many components as possible. I would expect to see a bunch of changes for both vehicles when they both begin to come down the production line.
Maybe new interiors, new display screens (wide screen instead of vertical). Refreshed suspensions, tire options, colors, seats, audio, etc.
I would like then to come out with a 100D with 300+ mile real world range. I think they can do more to convince the high-end family or non-AMG level car buyer it is viable and worth it.
-m
-m
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
They don't need additional demand and certainly they don't need to generate more demand while simultaneously constraining supply further.
Similar threads
