you miss the point.....its adds to the whole luxury idea of paying 1/2 as much for a car WITH THE SAME TECH AS THE S MODEL...and even better tech in wipers/screen resolution and screem refreshrate. The 3 is better/newer/higher tech not only software wise but in harware as well. Even the headlights seem to perform way way better then the s headlights...and i bet homelink actually works on the 3.
Homelink works fine on my Model S. The range isn't as good as the separate remote, but it works.
lets face it...they needed the s to fund them into the 3. Bottom line is they needed to suck as much $$$$$ for a model s as they could get from buyers to fund the operation and his other space x crap.
Like everything the 1st of any item is way overpriced untill its not new tech anymore or other versions of the same tech come out...like 4k tv.....now i think 5k is coming.....all laptops will be 4k soon and cheap as 720p laptops were 5-6 yrs ago.
SpaceX is a separate company from Tesla. Elon Musk has invested his own money in both companies and the companies have shared technology, but I don't believe money was taken out of one company and put in the other.
Model S sales helped make the Model X happen, and sales of both have helped make the Model 3 happen. They have always been a bit overpriced for what you get, but they needed to be to help fund continued development. I expect that will be changing. They can keep demand up a bit during the Model 3 ramp by pitching it as the car you can get sooner (as they are doing now), and they can start ratcheting down the price to open the doors to more buyers.
The Model 3 could be a major game changer for the automotive industry, but it will probably be a big game changer for Tesla too. Up to now they have had to supplement continued development by selling stock or doing other things to raise money. When the Model 3 reaches volume, they will be in the position for the first time that in production cars are paying for everything.
Currently they make about 50K Model S and a smaller number of Model X a year. But say they will make 100K of the S/X next year. If they continue to make around $20K a car as they do now, that's about $2 billion gross profit on car sales from those two lines. If they get Model 3 production to 250K cars and only make $10K a car, that's $2.5 billion from the Model 3. And they plan to ramp to 500K a year before 2020.
They could afford to cut their profit margin on the Model S and X and still do quite well. Additionally the cost of production of the Model S and X will probably be coming down too. As they have built the production lines for the Model 3, they have learned how to make cars more efficiently. There are some things with the S/X that will still be expensive to produce (I've heard the X's front windshield and falcon wing doors are a nightmare to get right). They could make changes to the cars to make them easier to produce that the customer will never see. Other things might be noticeable, but people won't care.
Another cost savings will be in the costs of raw materials. They will be buying some things used on all cars that will becoming cheaper because their volume is up, such as sheet aluminum, fasteners, some of the electronics, etc.
In a year, the S and X might easily cost $10K less to produce. If they passed those savings on instead of pocketing the profits, some people sitting on the fence because of the price would go for an S over the 3.
They need to keep the S positioned as the more luxurious car than the 3, but the price point can't be so high a large number of people say "why bother?" To justify the Model S they need to produce and sell enough of them to make it worthwhile. If volume drops too low, there isn't any point in keeping the Model S production line open anymore. The fixed costs spread out over production take too big a bite of the profits.
