Model S range and interior update imminent?

[Cloxxki]

How much would it cost for Tesla to create a little bracket for the instrument cluster to sit in, be plugged to the dash and then connect to the adjacent computer? They created a lovely integrated one that's still contemporary, debuted it in 2012.
Let's say such an add-on unit would cost $200 to make. And I do doubt it would be that much, especially when making 100,000 of them over a few year.
Now, how much would buyers need to pay extra to get the $200 screen? Let's, very conservatively, say $1,000.
You're now the average $100K car buyer. Do you get the extra screen or not? Assume they cannot be had aftermarket and you don't know if they'll be expected on used car 3 years from now. Apart from the added utility, you can get access to more info without changing view settings.
I bet such an option screen would bring in dozens of million of profit in itself. Merely considering to remove such a cheap items for the sake of "we intend to have Level 5 some day, nothing to look at, maybe not even a steering wheel to stick it behind", while so many drivers and buyers still prefer to have it, is saying no to money and needlessly jeopardizing the health of the brand as a whole. I could add a few double facepalm images for dramatic effect, but some of you will get the point without it. 100,000 readers what the facepalm pictures, I'll add them. For 5x my cost. That fair? I'm a customer satisfaction professional, which makes Tesla all the more interesting to follow. Curious decisions to say the least. A deity gets away with that, but a stable company that is no longer production limited, can they?

 

[BrianKH]

Cloxxki, I am not sure if you saw it already but you may want to read post #2239 in this thread. You may still get your wish for some sort of instrument readout.

 

[Cloxxki]

10% increase in range will still not compensate for phantom range drain over a period of week.

You are factually right, I'm sure. But if you have an S or X parked but no way to plug it in, you are an exception to the rule. If you drive to an airport and nearly drain the battery to get there, then park it with 10% only, yeah, you'll be looking for an extension cord or a valet service to top it up as you return from your month long cruise.

Tangent:
With V3 or even Urban chargers at private land such as airports, your car would even on advanced summon be able to get itself charged up. Imagine you're in long term parking and there are a few V3s with snake within it perimeter. On the app you would specify when you intend to return and it would keep you charged up and around 90% as the car greets you at the exit of Long Term parking. The app would schedule the present cars itself and use today's auto summon, not even Level 5 autonomy as it's on private land, to get cars to come charge and after get themselves auto-parked.
Would you like such a self-charge serving in long term parking or your private parking space? As other brands implement similar Summon features and charge providers add their robots, a single fast charger placed at an apartment building's parking lot/underground could get amazing coverage as cars could be scheduled in for their (say, 10-30 minutes) charge sessions). Most commuter cars would be present between 18.30 and 7.30. 11 hours to charge 3 cars per hour. An most cars would not need a charge more often than twice a week, if not even less than that. So one charger would service dozens of cars and actually sell a lot of energy. Coupled to the snake or sorts, couple to the various Summon features, that should be worth a nice kWh fee for the convenience. I'd love to operate a network of such shared chargers.

 

[Tiger]

Is this part of the interior refresh? Tesla designs new sunroof with electrical tint and integrated lighting system

 

[Krash]

Is this part of the interior refresh? Tesla designs new sunroof with electrical tint and integrated lighting system

That is part of the 2027 refresh.

 

[RobStark]

That is part of the 2027 refresh.

 

[BrianKH]

Saw this article today on Teslarati:

Tesla battery partner Panasonic sees higher Gigafactory output, cites Model S/X demand increase

While I am sure the recent change in motors for the S and X together with the suspension upgrade helped to drive new sales, Panasonic President's optimism for increased demand may serve to support the interior and other changes we have heard are coming in the third quarter.

 

[DocZ]

I have a source who is fairly confident the interior change is happening end of this year. We’ll see. Supports what Craz8 has been saying as well.

 

[MarkS22]

I have a source who is fairly confident the interior change is happening end of this year. We’ll see. Supports what Craz8 has been saying as well.

"End of year" seems to be further out than most expect. I suppose we're talking about fewer than six months, so it's not a huge difference though.

 

[DocZ]

"End of year" seems to be further out than most expect. I suppose we're talking about fewer than six months, so it's not a huge difference though.

He thinks there may have been a delay. With how quickly Tesla moves though, I wouldn’t be surprised if they fix whatever delay and push up the release. I’m patiently waiting.

 

[WildCCD]

+1 I can't wait for the new model interior refreshes. How to cope with the wait anxiety?!?!?! (((

 

[WildCCD]

+1 I can't wait for the new model interior refreshes. How to cope with the wait anxiety?!?!?! (((

One thing I should point out is that the sales reps at Tesla stores all say interior refresh is never happening lol, but this thread keep my hopes alive

 

[CraZ8]

One thing I should point out is that the sales reps at Tesla stores all say interior refresh is never happening lol, but this thread keep my hopes alive

I talk to reps at stores all the time.( have to do something while the wife shops) Some are quite knowledgeable about what they are selling as it sits in the showroom . However as far as the company is concerned about future products they are like mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed crap.
Ps a little tidbit, while they are not changing the battery configuration at this time on the S and X they are tweaking the chemistry a bit. Also tweaking the the software on heating and cooling the battery allowing a higher charging rate at some point in the future. I have no idea when that will be implemented however

 

[Munka]

Saw this article today on Teslarati:

Tesla battery partner Panasonic sees higher Gigafactory output, cites Model S/X demand increase

While I am sure the recent change in motors for the S and X together with the suspension upgrade helped to drive new sales, Panasonic President's optimism for increased demand may serve to support the interior and other changes we have heard are coming in the third quarter.

I read this too, but it presents a dilemma. Currently all S and X batteries come from Japan. So if S and X sales go up 100x the increased demand at the gigafactory is nil.

So either it's BS, Panasonic are going to make old form factor cells at gigafactory or they do shortly expect to see 2170 cells in the S.

I guess one indirect way this could occur is if S and X cells pick up they will consume cells that would have ended up in power walls and more power walls will use cells from the gigafactory. But that's the only way I can make a link.

 

[Tiger]

I guess this is the end, afterall:

 

[darxsys]

I guess this is the end, afterall:

I wish. Then apple could actually go and buy Tesla (assuming this article is true): Apple bid to buy Tesla in 2013 for $240 a share, analyst says

 

[CraZ8]

Look for announcement early mid September.

The new interior will be spectacular. colored LED accent lights. New window seals. New Heated/ cooled seats. Model 3type venting and a lot more neat stuff as I’m sworn to some secrecy.

 

[wordless888]

Look for announcement early mid September.

The new interior will be spectacular. colored LED accent lights. New window seals. New Heated/ cooled seats. Model 3type venting and a lot more neat stuff as I’m sworn to some secrecy.

Different battery as well?

I can’t believe they are doing the Raven refresh and another major update in one year.

 

[wdolson]

In the video he starts off talking about market capitalization, but that's very emotion driven. Using that measure is comparable to making guesses who is making the most money in Hollywood based on who is trending on Twitter. The two have some rough correlation, and actor trending on Twitter is probably not someone making ends meet working in a diner, but there are a lot of reasons someone might be trending on Twitter than just how much money they are raking in, or even their popularity with the public.

As for Tesla's health, it's harder to measure overseas sales compared to US sales. If you look at InsideEvs' numbers, it looks like all Tesla sales have fallen off a cliff, but while the Model S and X are down, total sales of Model 3s are doing OK. Tesla reported over 50K Model 3s sold in Q1 with over 10K cars in transit to overseas destinations at the end of the quarter. Assuming the bulk of those are Model 3s, That puts Model 3 production numbers in line with production at the end of last year.

A couple of years ago survival of the company depended on Model S and X sales, but now it's Model 3 sales. Tesla is struggling a bit, but there are reasons for that. They had a number of false starts with Model 3 production that cost them dearly in both sales and reputation, but production seems pretty smooth now. The early bugs have been worked out of the car and the cars sold today are more reliable than the early production cars.

Tesla also has internal competition between the Model S and 3. The Model S is a more useful car, bigger, better range, etc., but the cost difference between it and the Model 3 for what you get is hard to justify. The Model S sold as well as it did because it drew a lot of people who would not normally buy a $100K car into that market because it was the only thing available, but the more frugal car buyers are going for the Model 3 because it's 90% of the car for 60% of the cost.

The Model S has dominated the large luxury sedan segment for years because it's a very, very tiny segment of the car market. Very few people, regardless of their wealth, would ever buy a BMW 7 series, or any of the other cars on that list. A larger percentage of those people than the general public are on this forum, so it's a bit skewed, but in the world at large, they are rare cars. If Tesla rolls out a refresh Model S that is about $10K-$15K more than the Model 3 with features that buyers think are worth it, sales will go back up to where they were.

Very few car buyers want the luxury premiums found on high end luxury cars. People will pay a bit more for some upgrades. The sedan market is nearly dead in the US, but domestic luxury SUVs sell well. The Cadillac Escalade is the best selling US large luxury SUV. It's basically a Chevy Tahoe with some extra trim, but it sells well in this country. It starts at $75K and the most expensive model, the Platinum is still less than $100K. The second best seller, the Mercedes GLS class starts at $70K, but the next trim up is $95K.

Personally I like the Model S much more than the Model 3, but if the Model 3 had been available when I was shopping, I would have bought a Model 3. I can't justify the extra cost when something nearly as good but much cheaper is available. We'd probably use my SO's Subaru Impreza for more hauling than we do now. With the Model S, the Subaru is definitely the second vehicle. It's 4X more expensive to drive and the Model S has more cargo space, but the Impreza has more useful cargo space than a Model 3 with the trunk.

Tesla would have to dramatically change their interior design philosophy to compete with the over $100K cars out there. But they could compete with the next tier down with a bit nicer interior with only a modest price premium over the Model 3/Y.

As for Apple buying Tesla, Apple has lots of money, but they really aren't innovating anymore. From about 2000 to Steve Jobs' death, they were constantly coming out with innovative products, but since his death the only product introductions have been tweaks on existing products. Tesla would languish as a division of Apple and Elon Musk would be a cloud of dust. He's not going to work under the Apple umbrella. Elon is friends with the founders of Google and he could probably manage to work with them, though there would be a lot of friction.

 

[robg]

Tesla would have to dramatically change their interior design philosophy to compete with the over $100K cars out there. But they could compete with the next tier down with a bit nicer interior with only a modest price premium over the Model 3/Y.

Agree. I think Tesla is slowly getting there with their adjusted Model S pricing. The closest mainstream model is probably the Audi A7/S7/RS7 (midsize premium hatchback with nice styling). Right now, they're still roughly 10k higher (comparing MSRPs). Maybe cut that to a 5k premium and fix some of the obvious issues (door pockets, phone integration, plus some missing luxo features like surround view/HUD/massage seats) and that would probably do it.

Elon Musk would be a cloud of dust.

From my perspective, that would be great. I'm not seeing any positive contribution from Elon Musk lately. In fact, getting rid of Musk is probably the best single thing the company could do right now.