Hi all,
Ed Hellwig from Inside Line here. Glad to see someone finally picked up my story on the Model S (thanks TEG).
I've been following the coverage on the Model S and I've been a little disappointed in the lack of detail presented. Most of the stories have essentially just repeated whatever Elon said at the presentation, but it's pretty clear to me that his remarks were somewhat off the cuff.
I was curious what chassis they were using too, which is why I went to Mike Donoughe to get some answers (I remember him from his days at Chrysler). He made it pretty clear that no decisions had been made on the chassis yet. You'll notice that none of the stories out there mention what kind of suspension the car has. I asked that too and Mike simply said that they would be using designs similar to current luxury cars. Again, if this hasn't been finalized then they don't have a chassis yet.
TEG may be right that the silver car was based on a Mercedes chassis, but Mike very clearly said that the production car would be made of aluminum, so if the display car was rolling on a Mercedes chassis then it was for show purposes only as Mercedes doesn't currently have an aluminum sedan chassis.
There are other questions too. The rear jump seats for instance. I saw the car in person and I don't think it's feasible. Even if there's enough head room, you wouldn't be able to see out. You would essentially be putting two kids in the trunk. Someone at the press conference asked how the head curtain airbags would extend to those seats and Elon just sort of said, "we'll make it work." It seems like something he wants, but I doubt any of the engineers think it's possible.
To be clear, I'm not trying to purposely raise any doubts about the viability of this vehicle, but as a journalist I do think it's important to let the public know that this car isn't a done deal. There are many details still to be worked out, so the idea of customers putting deposits down based on this concept seem a little far fetched to say the least.
I would be interested to hear the board's thoughts on this, thanks.
Ed Hellwig
Senior Editor
Edmunds Inside Line
Ed Hellwig from Inside Line here. Glad to see someone finally picked up my story on the Model S (thanks TEG).
I've been following the coverage on the Model S and I've been a little disappointed in the lack of detail presented. Most of the stories have essentially just repeated whatever Elon said at the presentation, but it's pretty clear to me that his remarks were somewhat off the cuff.
I was curious what chassis they were using too, which is why I went to Mike Donoughe to get some answers (I remember him from his days at Chrysler). He made it pretty clear that no decisions had been made on the chassis yet. You'll notice that none of the stories out there mention what kind of suspension the car has. I asked that too and Mike simply said that they would be using designs similar to current luxury cars. Again, if this hasn't been finalized then they don't have a chassis yet.
TEG may be right that the silver car was based on a Mercedes chassis, but Mike very clearly said that the production car would be made of aluminum, so if the display car was rolling on a Mercedes chassis then it was for show purposes only as Mercedes doesn't currently have an aluminum sedan chassis.
There are other questions too. The rear jump seats for instance. I saw the car in person and I don't think it's feasible. Even if there's enough head room, you wouldn't be able to see out. You would essentially be putting two kids in the trunk. Someone at the press conference asked how the head curtain airbags would extend to those seats and Elon just sort of said, "we'll make it work." It seems like something he wants, but I doubt any of the engineers think it's possible.
To be clear, I'm not trying to purposely raise any doubts about the viability of this vehicle, but as a journalist I do think it's important to let the public know that this car isn't a done deal. There are many details still to be worked out, so the idea of customers putting deposits down based on this concept seem a little far fetched to say the least.
I would be interested to hear the board's thoughts on this, thanks.
Ed Hellwig
Senior Editor
Edmunds Inside Line
Last edited: