Overall, I am feeling 'meh' about this launch. Not enough tasty engineering details, and then the various unexciting things like pricing and range not being what we might have wished for.
Pricing is a disappointment (much greater than inflation would indicate), but not a huge surprise. As others have mentioned, I expect this will go down over time as production ramps up.
We already expected 48V, and 800V was not really a surprise. The real question there is how they're handling charging on 400V systems. They indicate 250kW at 400V supercharging, but is that due to dynamically reconfiguring the battery from 800V to 400V or by a beefy DC-DC boost converter to get from 400V to 800V? I feel like the extra contactors to change it from 800V to 400V would be cheaper, but I could be wrong.
The lack of real "500 mile" battery is disappointing, but I am very interested in how the range extender add-on is implemented. It's "Installed separately" which implies that it's a permanent fixture, rather than something the end user can easily remove. If so, that at least solves the cooling problem, as they could have an access panel in the bed area that is removed for the range extender that not only passes through the DC connection but also cooling hoses. It would be really cool if it was designed such that the end user could add/remove it, but I'll be surprised if that's the case.
Slightly disappointed by the lack of built-in air supply in the same fashion as the bed power outlets, but it's not the end of the world, since you can simply have an AC powered air pump that you store somewhere in the vehicle (it's got plenty of space). The camper accessory apparently includes it's own since it requires airing up (I am curious as to whether it uses air inflated bladders as structural supports for the roof, or if that's just to provide a comfy air mattress surface on the bottom).
The lack of a tailgate ramp we've more or less expected for a while, but that was another disappointment after having it on the reveal vehicle years ago.
On the plus side, there's a number of interesting accessories already available to take advantage of the L-track in the bed, so that's nice I guess?
I think the more insightful takeaway from the event is that steer by wire is here. That will make the unboxed construction of the next gen / "$25K" vehicle that much easier to accomplish, both from just an assembly point of view and also from an enabling LHD markets point of view. Perhaps, eventually, S3XY will be updated to steer by wire, and the UK and similar markets will be able to get LHD vehicles again.