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I was surprised as well. I would have thought that they'd have automated that process a while ago. Unless it won't take very long to plan and implement the few thousand battery packs they may have on hand are going to get used up pretty quickly once production starts in July.
Then again, if Model S and Model X are any indication, July might be the start of slow production and real production be 3-6 months down the road?
Elon said they would be producing >5,000 cars a week by the end of this year. That's Model 3's, not combined S/X/3's.
Right. If the initial supplier orders are any indication they're shooting for about 1,000 a week or so. At that rate, even if they have 4,000 packs made now and can make another 1,000 by the time production starts, they've only got enough for a little over a month of production. Hopefully the automation can come online before the end of July.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
That's just speculation. It could be the pack is barely under 60kWh and they round up. The article says they are doing the same for the 75 kWh pack (actual is 74, round up to 75 for marketing). We'll see when the car is out and people get into the software.That has to be exactly the reason. C-suite Tesla people were stating on record the base 3 battery would be "less than 60 kWh" last year. Only thing that has changed was the Bolt's official EPA range rating, which blew away even the GM fans' expectations.
There would be no way Elon could release any version of a Model 3 with less rated range than the Bolt. They probably tried to match/exceed the Bolt's range with their original <60 kWh battery size, but found they couldn't, so they added the extra 5 kWh.
All Model 3 reservation holders wanting a smaller battery 3 should thank GM for forcing Tesla to up the kWh count.
edit: oh, also, many people also thought that the Bolt's 60 kWh battery size was the overall pack size, with less actually being usable. Now we've found out the usable capacity is 60, with the overall size being a few kWh more (64-65 kWh from owner estimates).
Wolverinegeoff
Member
Piggybacking on your comment, I believe Elon has stated that the model 3 reservations gave them access to BETTER component manufacturers with higher quality/lower cost due to anticipating the high volume of orders. He said before, they couldn't even get a meeting with the best ones due to their relatively low output and high risk they'd just fold at a moment's notice. Not saying Model 3 will be higher quality than S, but the components themselves should be very solid in their quality.
JeffK
Well-Known Member
That was early model S, before anyone knew they'd be successful. They've had tier 1 suppliers since then.
Wolverinegeoff
Member
Elon quote: "Whereas, particularly for Model S and to some degree for Model X, when we were trying to get suppliers for Model S, a lot of the top-tier suppliers wouldn't even work with us.... Having shown the results of the Model S and the Model X, the interest from suppliers went from basically getting like the worst team on second-tier suppliers to getting the best team on first-tier suppliers. It's really a big difference.".
"We're able to get usually the A team at the A supplier for Model 3"
This implies it was difficult for Model X too, as they continued to have to prove themselves to suppliers, which is a lot more recent than "early model S". Point is the same regardless, no reason to assume there will be crappy components in the 3 and they will easily be up to par with the quality of components from S/X, although clearly less features overall.
JeffK
Well-Known Member
I'd consider Brembo, Magna, Mercedes, Michelin, Bosch, ZF, and Takata top tier suppliers...
Perhaps you mean for minor components like bumper assemblies... sure maybe those will be cheaper and slightly better quality now with Model 3 from a different supplier.
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Garlan Garner
Banned
JeffK
Well-Known Member
They make the radar and helped Tesla with the radar point cloud. They also have their own autonomous car research.
You posted this 6 weeks ago:
ZeApelido, Apr 14, 2017
They are going to start with like 50 / week in July.
shrspeedblade
Rideshare Monkey
Assuming you have some good information, it seems like you could give a lot more detail without compromising the source(s) if you wanted to. As you have recently hinted at some info. of design or production challenges, you'll be taken a lot more seriously if you can back it up more and not remain in the realm of vague innuendo.
So please, share.
If not, I'll publicly say I think you're full of B.S.
I don't really have any more info on the production rate. From what I recall, even internally they interpreted the supply ramp to mean 1000 per week initially. Then I think EM communicated through email it would be 50 per week in July. People were definitely relieved.
I missed an opportunity to talk to this person again last week, sorry no update on this or if the charging issue was fixed.
I just noticed www.tesla.com/compare was update with Model 3 Features. This was not listed when Elon tweeted out the compare link
- Full Self-Driving Capability
- Aluminum and Steel Body
- Coil Suspension
- Optional Glass Roof
- 18" or 19" Wheels
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
Looks like the least sinister explanation (as quoted earlier on) is the right one. They don't have features listed on Model 3 simply because the list was not finished.
Makes all the speculation about how Tesla would be misleading if they come with a glass roof on the Model 3 seem silly. I expect the over-analyzing of the 100 configurations to end similar.
