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So what are they going to do with the Betas?

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Use them for parts and keep them on display still in stores. While it would be ideal to have a production car on display in stores. I would imagine its a good cost savings strategy.

Yes, I think they'll definitely take the drivetrain out (of those betas that do have them) and reuse those parts. The body aluminum may not be of much use in any case unless they want the 5 cents for recycling aluminum in California ;)
 
I think they should make one into a police car prototype. No idling, wicked acceleration, weapons can go out of sight in the frunk. There is already a computer with connectivity. Huge potential savings in fleet maintenance and fuel costs.
 
Well they definitely won't crush them. I don't think ANY of us could stand a third movie.

I can picture a few of them staying in a barn somewhere and coming out 50 years from now, maybe VIN #One with a full restoration on Barrett-Jackson-Musk. They will talk about the new batteries and having to add lead pieces to make up for the weight balance. To max the price they'll wheel out old Elon on his PEW (Personal Electric Wheels) to add a sharpie signature across the banana wood. That should add another 700 mil so it should go for about 2.9 billion. (what will be the cost of money 50 yrs from now in 2012 dollars?)
 
Well they definitely won't crush them.

Why not?

I imagine they'll keep a couple for the "museum', and possibly as platforms for testing software or other components, but they'll scrap them eventually. They've served their purposes.

We've read here that some of the betas have mismatched seats, trim pieces, components that were being tested but not selected for production, etc. Each one was hand built, and I'm sure they all have unique bugs and personalities, which isn't too helpful for improving the manufacturing cycle.

At some point in the future they'll be too old and incompatible to use for anything, and it'll be much more "worth it" to scrap them and use perfect ones from the assembly line as the test platforms going forward.

/Mitch.
 
Tesla should offer Betas with drive trains to battery developers who can demostrate possible advancements.

Crushing them will not have the same impact as the EV1. If they get around to crushing them, there will be thousands of Model S vehicles in the hands of owners and most of these will not be leased.
 
That's because the early betas got the crap beat out of them. Can you imagine the stress of many tens of thousands of people climbing in and out? Especially since a lot of people don't exactly take care to be nice to the demo hardware (I've seen them!).

They 'abused' many of them on purpose. Extreme cold. Extreme heat. Extreme dust. Making sure they can hold up to the worst conditions.
 
Engineers need cars to do testing on.

To me racing is a bad idea at this delicate launch time.

Was told there is a section of the factory with all the testing wrecked cars, including the Roadsters. Maybe they go there.