What will Battery upgrades cost on Model 3?

[voip-ninja]

Exactly. At a starting price of $35k, you are dealing with a whole new class of customer. This customer base once getting past the diehard enthusiasts will be a very price sensitive group. Demand for the S and X is relatively inelastic with regards to price. People who are buying one really came with their mind made up to buy one. With the lower price of the M3, this is a group that has other options and is at a whole new income bracket where these types of expenditures have to be balanced with many of the other aspects of daily life.

I disagree. This car is a luxury car and not geared towards price sensitive customers.

Sure, they will sell quite a few base models but they will sell a lot of upgrades.

BMW 320i starts at around $33,000 and is quite a nice car. However I suspect the average 3 goes out at more like $42-$45K. Mine cost $58,900 and isn't even fully loaded.

Expect Tesla to definitely roll loaded cars with more urgency and use the prospect of tax credit as a carrot towards that end (the fed buys some of the options and Tesla makes more money).

I see quite a few cancellations when customers find out that just to get a leather upgraded interior and extended battery this probably becomes a $45,000 car.

I am budgeting about $55,000 for AWD leather, stereo and tech goodies and not even sure if that is enough budget to get me all the way there.

 

[lklundin]

I agree with base battery size.. I think you are being overly conservative with 175 per kWh. It is assumed to be at 200 kWh today. GF is already ahead of schedule today and producing batteries already and it's 1.5~2 yrs from today that we're talking about. 1/8 in cost reduction over 2 yrs with the economies of scale provided by GF seems... too conservative..

To my knowledge, the current production at the Gigafactory consists of creating battery packs from cells already produced elsewhere by someone else. If you have information that the gigafactory is actually producing cells at this time, then you are welcome to elaborate and provide a source.

PS. Sorry for being so pedantic but writing "200 kWh" is really quite different from the "200 $/kWh" that would make sense. It is only two extra characters.

 

[lklundin]

To my knowledge, the current production at the Gigafactory consists of creating battery packs from cells already produced elsewhere by someone else.

To be slightly more specific, Monday at the Gigafactory JB Straubel said of the battery cell production process:
"This is where we will actually mix the materials, the raw materials, we mix them into what’s called a slurry."

From this and other information in the bellow source, I conclude that currently the gigafactory only creates the battery packs from cells not made at the site.

Tesla Gigafactory: Take an inside tour with Tesla's JB Straubel

In a sense this is good, because it means that Tesla's current figure for battery pack cost (190 $/kWh) does not yet include the expected savings from the gigafactory.

 

[Colsla]

To my knowledge, the current production at the Gigafactory consists of creating battery packs from cells already produced elsewhere by someone else. If you have information that the gigafactory is actually producing cells at this time, then you are welcome to elaborate and provide a source.

PS. Sorry for being so pedantic but writing "200 kWh" is really quite different from the "200 $/kWh" that would make sense. It is only two extra characters.

I guess I was wrong about the pack. Didn't read carefully. Sorry.

Yeah I was half asleep when I was writing it.. my apologies will try and be more careful next time