Model S design studio is up

[Adm]

Could anybody explain why one would choose the black roof option? (unless the car is black of course)

 

[Cobos]

Yeah I really like red as a colour. My wife adores purple, and currently our ICE car now is a pretty good burgundy kind of red. I can understand they want to keep special red colours for the Signature series, but I'd really like something reddish for the non-signature as well... Maybe for the European release they will get more colours, they should have expanded the production line then anyway.

Cobos

 

[William13]

What do people think about the black roof option? The Mini Cooper does this sort of thing. I hope the have one that I can see as I do like to be noticed as long as it is not ugly.

 

[qwk]

Could anybody explain why one would choose the black roof option? (unless the car is black of course)

It looks awesome. I was originally going to go with a black car, but after seeing the pearl white with a black top, I'm in love..

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

What do people think about the black roof option? The Mini Cooper does this sort of thing. I hope the have one that I can see as I do like to be noticed as long as it is not ugly.

Yes, we have a silver roof on our Mini which is brown otherwise and it does stand out (much like an 'accent wall' in a large room) but, IMHO, only a car the size of the Mini can pull it off. In a car the size of the Model S, it might look tacky and seemingly there just for the sake of it...

 

[William13]

Gg that is my concern. I hope I can see a two tone in person before I put in the final order.

 

[William13]

The black and white might work but I am not as sure with the red and black.

 

[AnOutsider]

Yes, we have a silver roof on our Mini which is brown otherwise and it does stand out (much like an 'accent wall' in a large room) but, IMHO, only a car the size of the Mini can pull it off. In a car the size of the Model S, it might look tacky and seemingly there just for the sake of it...

I disagree. Many bmws have that as an option (even carbon fiber). Looks great with a white car. We plan to go for the panorama roof though, which will look black enough.

 

[dsm363]

Personal preference I guess. I agree the white with black roof looks great. The red with the black roof looks good to me too. It almost likes like a solar panel even though it isn't. The panoramic roof is nice too but not sure if I'll get that.

 

[goyogi]

Don't count on it. The volume isn't there yet.

The roadster has less volume but much more colors to choose from. Perhaps this is only the initial offering but I was gunning for the blue/grey color that you can see on the brochure you can get at the dealer.

 

[Citizen-T]

The roadster has less volume but much more colors to choose from. Perhaps this is only the initial offering but I was gunning for the blue/grey color that you can see on the brochure you can get at the dealer.

I think it might have more to do with the difficulty of getting paint to bind properly to aluminum. I don't really know anything about it, but I remember Elon saying on a conference call that aluminum is a tricky substance to paint properly. They might not have had enough time to engineer all the colors under the sun, and just picked the ones that are most popular in luxury cars (the blacks, whites, and silvers) to start with.

We might get more colors, but I doubt it would be before launch.

 

[dmckinstry]

I quite like the blue, but when I showed the palette of available colors to my wife she was even more disappointed than I was ("what, no lightning green?"). Perhaps plain white will be our last resort, though in any discussion of car color there was tremendous agreement that white, black, and silver/gray are way to dull.

I would take the blue as my first choice, but all the "real" colors seemed quite dark. I'll want to see samples in the store on metal before making a final decision.

 

[doug]

The roadster has less volume but much more colors to choose from.

The Roadster colors (at least initially) were just renamed Lotus colors, and Lotus did the painting. Tesla might need some more time and higher volume for it to make sense to offer more colors in their paint shop.

 

[ckessel]

So far the only thing that's different in the "build a Sig" vs. "normal build" is the color red. I suppose that'll change when the other items are configurable. I'm still hoping the Sig has some overall price break for a mostly decked out car, otherwise I'll have to drop from Sig to a normal reservation. And hopefully some options could be dropped regardless. For instance, I really don't care about having the car be a mobile wireless hotspot and I don't want to pay for a month 3G/4G connection I'll almost never use.

 

[Mycroft]

Somewhere else on the website they mentioned that the Signature edition will include a leather interior. So that's something besides the color. I'm sure we'll know more in December/January. I'd be willing to bet that the mobile hotspot thing will be included in every car. The service will probably have 30 days or so "free" and then optionally continue for a fee after that. With all the new streaming services, I'll probably spring for the 3G service myself.

 

[strider]

I think it might have more to do with the difficulty of getting paint to bind properly to aluminum. I don't really know anything about it, but I remember Elon saying on a conference call that aluminum is a tricky substance to paint properly. They might not have had enough time to engineer all the colors under the sun, and just picked the ones that are most popular in luxury cars (the blacks, whites, and silvers) to start with.

We might get more colors, but I doubt it would be before launch.

I recall them saying they were going to powdercoat instead of paint. Anyone else have the same recollection? That might also limit their color options. Of course my wife zeroed right in on the Pearl White and panoramic roof. Since so far we're picking all the options, I wonder if I should just get a Sig

 

[VolkerP]

If you can afford it, switch to the signature edition. Get two cars in one for the same price!

Edit: Deleting cache in Firefox did restore the design studio to normal behaviour.

 

[TEG]

I recall them saying they were going to powdercoat instead of paint. Anyone else have the same recollection?...

I recently noticed this:
Yahoo! Message Boards - Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) - Tesla Paint

...They abandoned powder coating because it was crazy and eventually you have to accept that. They are still targeting Aston Martin quality paint, which I assume would be a triple wet with sanding between coats which is of course very expensive.

The good news is Tesla can do everything for half the cost of everyone else, which is why they can sell the equivalent of an Audi A8 with a $20000 battery added for only $57,000 and still have higher margins than Audi.

I believe it is because of a "holistic approach to vehicle integration" or possibly the use of neutrinos in the manufacturing process...

Now, take the above with a huge 'grain of salt' as those financial message boards tend to be chock full of BS most of the time.

 

[strider]

I recently noticed this:
Yahoo! Message Boards - Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) - Tesla Paint

Now, take the above with a huge 'grain of salt' as those financial message boards tend to be chock full of BS most of the time.

Hmm. I was wondering how they were going to do metallics or pearls w/ powdercoating but I'm going to miss the durability.

 

[cinergi]

Water-based paint. I've got a video of one of the machines that I'll get uploaded at some point (it's in the queue). It's primer, paint, clear coat.