Battery is big disappointment

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

If the only difference is the battery size, then if large battery is 75kWh and gets 310 miles, it would imply the small battery version (which should be more efficient) has 53kWh or less. Not great for us drivers in cold temperatures, but a good sign for efficiency.

No more details than that. That could be bad (e.g. slow Supercharging, other flux, other issues) or good (want to keep the S sales going by not generating too much excitement).

I suspect that they'll sell a bunch of the large battery version easily at that price. But that $9k upgrade cost suggests that they'll not be rushing to get the base model out and that extra cost ($9k + sales tax + excise tax + insurance) would probably come to about $3k even with the full $7.5k tax credit, so at this point I'm thinking that I'll not be bringing my purchase forward and will end up buying a new car in 2019.

I hope Tesla will be successful enough with the Model 3 that it's still around at that point.

 

[Brian Minick]

i think you'll get the better looking rims with the bigger battery.

Interesting concept...would push me over, the other rims are ugly

 

[Philcasi]

is the battery sled going to a 75 but "dumb" it down to a 55 and then we can pay to unlock it later?

 

[azred]

Perhaps there is more to the package. I'll wait to see. I agree it's a lot of money just for the range, but I'm thinking there might be additional upgrades along with that.

I suspect the big price bump is due to the big bump in range. When I bought my S75 last December, the battery upgrade was only $5000. However the increased range vs the 60 was much less. What I find disappointing is the small battery's range. I can't believe they didn't bump that up at least 20 miles to beat the Bolt. I'm guessing they put themselves in a box by advertising a $35,000 car a year ago and that limited the battery. 220 is crap for anything but commuting and short trips, especially with crowded Superchargers. People will surely want to bypass busy Superchargers but the short range will make that tough to do.

 

[Thomas Edison]

I'm surprised at the gap between the 2 battery sizes. 40% is massive

 

[EV2BFREE]

According to Elon, the AWD version won't be available at launch. Based on the Model S RWD vs AWD, the range should increase and 0-60 time should improve also. The 75 vs the 75D improves 10 miles and shaves .1 sec off of the 0-60 time.

 

[electracity]

310 means 250 miles blasting the heat or AC. I think $44K is fine and expected.

 

[AZGirl]

Wow, Initially the 3 was announced as getting at least 215 miles. I really thought that when the Bolt announced 238 miles that Elon would try to top that even if just a bit with the smaller battery still at the $35,000 base price.

Upgrade to 310 is great but a pricey option!

 

[mhan00]

is the battery sled going to a 75 but "dumb" it down to a 55 and then we can pay to unlock it later?

Very doubtful. Margins will be thin on the 3 as is, I doubt Tesla can afford to provide software locked 75kwh batteries on all 3s.

 

[electracity]

It's not that the small or big batteries cannot turn a better 0-60 time, they are being deliberately held back in their controller programming. If we want awesome speed we have to pay more for the D or Ludicrous versions. This is what we get for $35K or $44K. 5.1 to 5.6 seconds.

With the controller unleashed, the small battery can crank out 4 second times, no problem.

No. The C rate on the smaller number of cells in the smaller pack is the issue. The 0-30 is probably similar but the smaller pack need to be throttled back sooner.

 

[electracity]

I'm surprised at the gap between the 2 battery sizes. 40% is massive

They didn't mess around, did they? Part of simplification not to offer an intermediate size.

 

[gavine]

310 means 250 miles blasting the heat or AC. I think $44K is fine and expected.

The AC doesn't use 60 miles of your range. 3 or 4 miles per hour of driving...maybe.

 

[Trancela]

My wild guess - the T3 standard range 215 miles, and the T3 long range 310 miles. The LR is 44% higher in range. Does the factor 1.44 ring a bell? It is about what a 2170 is to a 18650 (including the chemistry improvements). So that would mean the T3SR has the same number of 18650 cells as the T3LR has 2170 cells. The modules and banks for both are designed for the 2170, and in the cheaper vehicle, they fill it with the smaller cells.

 

[alseTrick]

$44K - $7.5K FED - $5K CO = VERY HAPPY RESERVATION HOLDER!

Thumbs down because the Florida rebate is $0. Hooray, Rick Scott (and the "awesome" political ideologies that dominate this state)!

 

[jgillispie]

Option pricing looks promising so far. 1k for paint and 1.5 for bigger rims.

 

[Krugerrand]

No. The C rate on the smaller number of cells in the smaller pack is the issue. The 0-30 is probably similar but the smaller pack need to be throttled back sooner.

No. Elon specifically has said that the 3 is being programmed to be efficient above performance. Straight up. You want performance, you get an S.

 

[alseTrick]

i think you'll get the better looking rims with the bigger battery.

I would gladly trade the "pretty" rims for the "ugly" rims. I wonder how many more miles the larger battery would get when combined with the smaller aero wheels.

 

[CarlitoDoc]

absolutely no mention of AWD timeline?

 

[jelloslug]

where did this info come from?

Elon Musk's mouth.

 

[flamingoezz]

isn't the gap in mileage larger on the model 3 than teslas other cars? maybe base battery is less than the anticipated 55kwh..

Either way, 9K battery upgrade will have many people budgeting their options a bit differently than they hoped. I thought it would be somewhere in the 5-7K range.