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Let's dispell some wrong assumptions about Model 3

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What? The M3 will be less in everything than the MS?!? For half the price?! I expected it to be made of gold and have everything better, bigger, brighter on it than the MS as really, it's a newer car right...?

I have to agree with OP in the direction: it will be less of a car in general than the MS. Whether people really have the illusion that they will get a similar or better equipped car than the MS are in for some surprises.

Having said that, it will be a great car for that price range.
 
What? The M3 will be less in everything than the MS?!? For half the price?! I expected it to be made of gold and have everything better, bigger, brighter on it than the MS as really, it's a newer car right...?

I have to agree with OP in the direction: it will be less of a car in general than the MS. Whether people really have the illusion that they will get a similar or better equipped car than the MS are in for some surprises.

Having said that, it will be a great car for that price range.
Depends on how you are comparing. Base to base, yes it's more likely the Model 3 will be less than MS in equipment. However for the same price, the opposite may be true. Then for an equivalent spec/equipment, the Model 3 will likely be less expensive.

So everything depends on what price range the person is looking at. If they are expecting to spend the base price of the Model S ($68k), or maybe somewhat less ($50k-60k), it's not naive to expect it to be better equipped than a base Model S.

If you are expecting to spend around the base $35k and expect it to be like the Model S then of course that is naive.
 
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Depends on how you are comparing. Base to base, yes it's more likely the Model 3 will be less than MS in equipment. However for the same price, the opposite may be true. Then for an equivalent spec/equipment, the Model 3 will likely be less expensive.

So everything depends on what price range the person is looking at. If they are expecting to spend the base price of the Model S ($68k), or maybe somewhat less ($50k-60k), it's not naive to expect it to be better equipped than a base Model S.

If you are expecting to spend around the base $35k and expect it to be like the Model S then of course that is naive.

Agree. Also: love your nick :D
 
My own view is that the Model 3 won't be as "good" as a Model S in a very general sense of the word. Those with the money should absolutely get an S over the 3.

For people like me, who definitely can't afford a Model S, the Model 3 will do just fine. And I'm counting on Tesla having perfected battery design, and optimised their production methods, as a way for them to deliver a bloody great car at that price.

I think the materials in the cabin will be as good as the S. I have no evidence for that but it is just a feeling. We'll see who's right at the next reveal!
 
The C-Class starts at 35,000 pounds, not dollars. Thats about 44,000 US dollars.

Not true. You can get a base C-Class directly from Mercedes for £28k. You can actually get a better-than-base model from sites like CarWow which find you the best deals on new cars from dealerships.

My brother drives a 2 litre C-Class with various options and he paid less than £30k for it because he haggled with the dealership.

This is all in the UK - I expect prices will be higher in the US.
 
I agree with the gist of your statement. People(for the most part) are expecting way more from a 35k car than is reasonable. Not just the base but the option guessing gets out of control.. At the speed they want to produce these, I think you wont see as many or the same options as are available on the S and X.

I think if people are expecting MS interior quality for the base model, then yes, I'd say their expectations are too high. However, I'm expecting pretty similar interior quality on my $65k Model 3...and I expect the base Model 3 to be comparable to the interior on a similarly priced Audi/BMW.
 
Thing is though, we already know much of the cost drivers for the Model S
We already know that, although the Model S was more production capable than the Roadster, there is still a huge manual process attached to so much of the Model S - it wasn't designed to be mass produced, they didn't know enough then. Experience is a wonderful thing.
Many of the Elon's "bells and whistles" are those pain in the ass things, those expensive things that are in Model S and even more so with Model X.
So we also already know that the Model 3 has been designed specifically with mass manufacturing in mind, which in Elon's book means automation or machine built.
So it will be cheaper to make, not because its smaller or uses fewer batteries but because it was designed to be built in volume.
The new battery pack will cost much less than a Model S version at the same capacity - again because the new pack is designed for manufacturing efficiency just like the car.
Higher volume means lower profit percentage etc etc etc
There are so many ways Model 3 will cost less, the very bottom of the list is installing a crappier interior or deliberately making it "less" than a Model S.
When Elon presented this car he said it will be the best car you can buy for the money - thats what I expect regardless of what the current Model S is like. It will be up against BMW, Merc etc so it has to be brilliant.
Next step after Model 3 release will be the continuation of pushing Model S further up market with "S only" features.
 
$35k is a heck of a lot of money. In the UK, you can get a gorgeous Mercedes C-Class for less than that - and the "trims" in the car are excellent.

I agree 35k is a lot of money but I'm willing to pay it and more for a Tesla Model 3 even without test driving one.

Wouldn't pay even half that for Mercedes or a BMW or an Audi or even a VW - too old school for my taste.
 
In addition to all of your points there is also the fact that the design, development, testing, and production of the Model S and Model X was substantially more expensive than it will be for the Model 3 simply because they were the first cars Tesla produced at any volume and there was a very steep learning curve there with a lot of included expenses. With the Model 3 they've already learned a lot of those expensive lessons, they've built the corporate knowledge to drawn on, and they now have several years of experience building cars.


Probably not true. The ROI on refining the high volume model 3 should be much better than on lower production cars. Plus, Tesla is a much bigger company now than when designing the MS.

As a percentage of revenue, capitalization, or whatever Tesla many be spending less on the M3, but in total dollars they are likely spending much more. Consider that they built the gigafactory for the model 3.
 
That's the point I think the OP is trying to make. Do you not see how unreasonable that sounds? People expecting an S for about half the price?

The model 3 will be half the price as EVs become straight-up cost competitive with ICE cars. I expect the M3 to be easily twice the value per dollar as the 2012 MS. So yes, this decade the M3 will be the MS at half the cost.

The S/X will move up market, as much as possible, to try and maintain the gross revenue from those cars.
 
I frankly don't care if a Model 3 P90 D can do 0-60 in 1.5 seconds. I think it's logical that the Model S remain the flagship of the brand. If there will be a Model 3 that does 0-60 in 4 seconds or less, and its in my budget, I'll be thrilled. I know there will be faster cars out there. I'm also OK with the Model S offering a few features the Model 3 doesn't have. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
I will have owned 2 cars when I get my 3 - a manual '91 Ford Escort for 14 years (87 hp) and a '05 Prius for about 13 years (137 hp). Getting to go 0-60 in less than 10 sec in relative silence via on demand, instantaneous torque will make me as happy and content as a pig in poo.
 
The 3 will likely have less rear seat legroom than the S.
IMO, the rest of the items on your list are purely guesswork and at least as likely to be wrong as right.

Every article I've read says the Model 3 will have ample legroom and rivals the Model S

Quote from Elon:
best roominess of any car this size

Combined with the roof, all signs point to adults being more comfortable in the backseat of a Model 3 than a Model S.
 
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