In line with the pattern of Tesla Motors doing everything differently from everyone else in the industry (and doing it better), I wonder if there's a chance Tesla could drop the limited range of colors model in the future.
Today you are offered the option to choose from a very limited range of colors and finishes for your car. They are very nice colors, but the odds that if one was to choose the color one would like best, that color is one of the six or seven available is almost null.
So what if Tesla allowed you, as an extra option, to choose any color that can be parametrically defined, then choose a paint type (metallic, high-gloss, matte, etc.) and have your car custom painted at the factory? Cars are being painted by robots anyway, so having a system able to mix paint on demand and paint your car with it, while complex, doesn't seem anywhere as difficult as the things Tesla has already achieved.
Going from "any color you want, as long as it's black" to "any color you want, as long as it is one of these seven" is not a huge leap, but going from that to "any color you want, period" would give us a level of personalization that today can only be achieved in the aftermarket. Your car would be unique, guaranteed. You could even pay extra to have a guarantee that your color is yours and no one else's.
There are some complexities, such as matching paint of metal parts with that of plastic parts (I understand the different substrates cause the paint to react slightly differently) and having the repair shops equipped with the same capabilities as the factory, but if people are willing to pay extra for a custom color it may be worth the effort. With the computer modeling capabilities available today it should be possible to create a color matching system that can obtain the right color on demand. Maybe it's not possible, but if a human can do it (and they do it all the time at custom paint shops) a computer, either by modeling or by successive approximation, should be able to do it as well.
What do you think? Technically feasible? Commercially viable? Appealing? Would you pay extra for having your Model S come out of the factory in a color never seen before in another Model S? How much?
Today you are offered the option to choose from a very limited range of colors and finishes for your car. They are very nice colors, but the odds that if one was to choose the color one would like best, that color is one of the six or seven available is almost null.
So what if Tesla allowed you, as an extra option, to choose any color that can be parametrically defined, then choose a paint type (metallic, high-gloss, matte, etc.) and have your car custom painted at the factory? Cars are being painted by robots anyway, so having a system able to mix paint on demand and paint your car with it, while complex, doesn't seem anywhere as difficult as the things Tesla has already achieved.
Going from "any color you want, as long as it's black" to "any color you want, as long as it is one of these seven" is not a huge leap, but going from that to "any color you want, period" would give us a level of personalization that today can only be achieved in the aftermarket. Your car would be unique, guaranteed. You could even pay extra to have a guarantee that your color is yours and no one else's.
There are some complexities, such as matching paint of metal parts with that of plastic parts (I understand the different substrates cause the paint to react slightly differently) and having the repair shops equipped with the same capabilities as the factory, but if people are willing to pay extra for a custom color it may be worth the effort. With the computer modeling capabilities available today it should be possible to create a color matching system that can obtain the right color on demand. Maybe it's not possible, but if a human can do it (and they do it all the time at custom paint shops) a computer, either by modeling or by successive approximation, should be able to do it as well.
What do you think? Technically feasible? Commercially viable? Appealing? Would you pay extra for having your Model S come out of the factory in a color never seen before in another Model S? How much?
