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chriSharek
Member
"Chris Porritt, Tesla’s vice-president of engineering, previously told Autocar: “I expect there will be very little carry-over [from the Model S]. We’ve got to be cost-effective. We can’t use aluminium for all the [small car’s] components.” This suggests that the Model E will use mostly steel in its make-up although it will probably use bonding and rivets in its construction."
Any news on this anyone?
I really like the new features and design details on MX, but I don't think I will get one due to its enormous weight and reduced range.
So, I am hoping for a TMS facelift before the end of 2016. :smile:
Nevertheless, what happened to this gorgeous interior design of TMX?
It was such a let down when i saw public version of TMX. :wink:
If a TMS facelift is on the way, Tesla must make sure to bring this steering wheel, seats, front console and basically refreshed futuristic interior design too, in addition to all the exterior design(love the new overall lights designs, front facia) details and features. :smile:
And for God sake, please give us the option to have the bumpers and side-skirts to be fully painted and NO CHROME option
I hope I am not asking too much, but I am sure many people (if not all) will agree with me on this.
BTW, I also hope to see side mirrors disappear for good :biggrin:
I really like the new features and design details on MX, but I don't think I will get one due to its enormous weight and reduced range.
So, I am hoping for a TMS facelift before the end of 2016. :smile:
Nevertheless, what happened to this gorgeous interior design of TMX?
It was such a let down when i saw public version of TMX. :wink:If a TMS facelift is on the way, Tesla must make sure to bring this steering wheel, seats, front console and basically refreshed futuristic interior design too, in addition to all the exterior design(love the new overall lights designs, front facia) details and features. :smile:
And for God sake, please give us the option to have the bumpers and side-skirts to be fully painted and NO CHROME option
I hope I am not asking too much
, but I am sure many people (if not all) will agree with me on this.BTW, I also hope to see side mirrors disappear for good :biggrin:
I hope you are correct. I did my test drive over the weekend of a 90D and I am one of those undecided purchases. I know I want to go full electric and Tesla is the way, but I don't really need a vehicle the size of an S. I would be happy with a fully loaded 3, but if its going to cost slightly less than an S, I have to wait 2 years, and will probably not get the federal incentive what is the point. What I definitely don't want to happen is that I purchase my S and within a few months a refreshed one is for sale. Tesla is used to adding updates on the go, but they won't have repeat customers if they don't stick to a schedule so that people can make informed decisions. It is not an inexpensive vehicle.
Any news on this anyone?
I really like the new features and design details on MX, but I don't think I will get one due to its enormous weight and reduced range.
So, I am hoping for a TMS facelift before the end of 2016. :smile:
Nevertheless, what happened to this gorgeous interior design of TMX?
If a TMS facelift is on the way, Tesla must make sure to bring this steering wheel, seats, front console and basically refreshed futuristic interior design too, in addition to all the exterior design(love the new overall lights designs, front facia) details and features. :smile:
And for God sake, please give us the option to have the bumpers and side-skirts to be fully painted and NO CHROME option
I hope I am not asking too much
BTW, I also hope to see side mirrors disappear for good :biggrin:
Tesla doesn't have the engineers to spare to do much work on the Model S. The side mirrors will remain until governments change their laws. It will take most of the larger governments to change before car makers do away with mirrors. A lot of car makers want it though, not just Tesla.
Personally I like the look of the Model S for the most part. My current car has more chrome than the Model S does. It even came with white sidewall tires which aren't made anymore. About the only things I don't like about the Model S is the only way to get next gen seats is with leather, I would prefer a cloth option and there isn't enough storage. I'm not as worked up about cup holders as most Americans, but my SO has a nerve damage thing that can cause coughing fits if her throat gets dry and she has to have water or something else she can drink fast around all the time. She carries a case of sparkling water in her car and always has one in the cup holders.
I like to keep things in the car so they are handy when I need them and with no storage areas, things end up floating around the car. The 60s through 80s cars I drove before my current one didn't have much internal storage beyond the glove compartment and they looked like rolling rubbish heaps much of the time. I didn't think I'd use all the storage in my 92 car, but I found it was far easier to keep the car tidy when I had someplace to stash things. I've kept this car tidy for 24 years and I couldn't keep my previous cars tidy for a week.
Canuck
Well-Known Member
I predict that shortly after the Model 3 announcement, showing a front end similar to the X, the Model S design studio will change for new orders to a new nose and gone forever will be ugly gaping fish mouth, whose long worn out its welcome. Then all Teslas in production, or to be in production, will be recognizable from the front end with a new, sleek and stylish design that distinctively says "Tesla."
Call it wishful thinking on my part if you want ('cause you'd be right).
Call it wishful thinking on my part if you want ('cause you'd be right).
HankLloydRight
No Roads
I really don't understand why everyone thinks the M3 will have the same buck-tooth nose as the MX.
It might be similar in the same way all BMWS have a kidney grill, but even those vary a lot from line to line.
It might be similar in the same way all BMWS have a kidney grill, but even those vary a lot from line to line.
Canuck
Well-Known Member
HankLloydRight
No Roads
I guess we have different subjective definitions of "similar". From what I'm reading, it seems like everyone is expecting the M3 to have an identical nosecone to the X. I mean as similar as the X is to the S now.
I've done R&D engineering for almost 30 years. It isn't that simple. It's easy to pop out a few prototypes. Anything that will be made in small batches can be tweaked and modified with little impact on production. However any time you have a mass produced product, the process for getting anything from the drawing board into production is vastly more complex. Let's take putting LED headlights on the Model S as an example. The Model X already has them, which cuts down on the prototyping time but doesn't cut down on much else. The Model S wiring harnesses have to be modified to accept the new wiring. If you're doing it in your garage, that would take an afternoon, but all the production drawings have to change, new rigs need to be built for the production shop, and parts need to be ordered from suppliers. This will have overlap with the Model X and the wiring rigs can probably be copied, but somebody has to make the new tools.
Next because the front end of the Model X and Model S have different shapes, even if similar, they are different, an all new CAD design for the headlight housing has to be done. This requires an engineer to carefully program all the complex curves for the light. Once the part is designed, they need to digitally build a mock up of the new assembly and make sure that it not only will fit, but it can be installed on the production line and it can be removed it need be down the line. Before CAD this had to be done with a physical mock up, but modern CAD systems allow this to be done electronically which saves a few weeks of time. Once they know they have a part that will fit, they need to send out the CAD files to a plastics mold manufacturer who will cut the molds for the new parts. If they plan on molding multiple headlights at once, the mold maker will have to make the molds for multiple parts.
When they get the molds, they need to run test shots and test fit them on a vehicle to make sure the molds were made right. Even 1 mm off and the molds may need to go back for recutting. There are no plastic mold makers in the US, so all this is back any forth with Korea or China. Once the molds are proven to be in tolerance, then some test shots need to be made and installed on some mules to ensure they work. For something like headlights, the NHTSA probably needs to sign off on their safety and possibly the European equivalent needs to sign off.
Finally the headlights are ready for production. You have moved the technology from the Model X to the S, but it's taken 3-6 months and a team of at least 20 people to do the R&D work. And that's one of the simpler things to change.
Tesla puts a much larger percentage of its revenue back into R&D than any other car company, but their overall R&D budget is tiny compared to other companies and their R&D staff is comparably small. Tesla has a reputation for delivering late on new products and they want to change that with the Model 3, so I expect the bulk of the engineering staff are focused full time on all the myriad of details needed for the Model 3. The Model 3 is an all new design, whereas the Model X was only supposed to be a minor change from the Model S. Every little detail part needs the sort of attention just the headlights got in the above example. There is a reason GM, Toyota, and VW all have R&D budgets around $10 billion a year. They are designing a number of new cars at a time and going through that process with teams of thousands of people per project. Tesla only has 10,000 employees total.
Joules Verne
Member
Reeler
Decade of Pure EV Driving
Someone posted a pic LED headlights on a Model S manufacturer car being super charged. They may be quite far along on this process already. At least for the headlights.
I was going to reply with this same thing - why is everyone assuming that if a refresh is coming, that it is happening now? The current design of the Model S has been locked since 2012. You think in those 4 years, no progress has been made on v2?
And the wiring harness has changed in the Model S for cars produced since the X was going down the production line. Superficially you can tell as the diagnostics port design was changed, but I'm led to believe (by people that have access to the service documents) the changes are more wide ranging for the 12v system in general.
