White interior on SR+

[Vortex_3]

Hi all.
Can someone please explain to me in plain English, why cant we have white interior on SR+ model, if the same option already exists on the performance model?
I'm not asking for something that it does not exists in Australia.
And it's also available almost elsewhere in the world.
Is it marketing?
Is it logistics? (Don't believe so)
Will it be an option in the near future?
Thanks for leaving your opinion.

 

[Icey]

White is seen as a premium option. They want to push people to the more expensive cars that they make more money on.

 

[Vortex_3]

White is seen as a premium option. They want to push people to the more expensive cars that they make more money on.

But not seen it like that in other markets, so again, why here?

 

[Grenadine]

because that is what they decided. There really is no other explanation needed nor relevant.

 

[Vortex_3]

because that is what they decided. There really is no other explanation needed nor relevant.

Feels like discrimination, not been treated like other markets

 

[I<3URANUS]

Feels like discrimination, not been treated like other markets

Discrimination?

 

[rohan_aus]

Australia also doesn't get the option of 19" wheels like the rest of world. We're a very small market for them, they just want to simplify production and models.

 

[mmui90]

They don't really match production to orders (as evidenced by the number of LR AWD buyers that got offered upgrades to P- after the first shipments came through). It's more than likely to simplify options down so they don't need to swap production over to RHD for all the different interior options, and then to streamline the number of spare parts they would need to keep in stock when cars do get delivered.

 

[Vortex_3]

Discrimination?

Wrong word....
Unfair.

 

[Fazza]

Wrong word....
Unfair.

u're right to call it out.. as the model 3's AU and NZ get here are the same UK get (hence the single reverse light on the left tailgate and rear fog light on right tailgate) - yet UK do get the white option for the interior on the SR+

Tell Musky to get it sorted

 

[Fazza]

They don't really match production to orders (as evidenced by the number of LR AWD buyers that got offered upgrades to P- after the first shipments came through). It's more than likely to simplify options down so they don't need to swap production over to RHD for all the different interior options, and then to streamline the number of spare parts they would need to keep in stock when cars do get delivered.

nothing to do with RHD as UK SR+ has the white interior option.

 

[Hovean]

When Aus. M3 orders opened back in June and li was clear the white interior was only available in the MP3+, I asked Elon via Twitter if he could get his 'machine that makes the machine' to arrange some white interiors in Oz bound lower order M3s.
He hasn't got back yet!
It's $1500 extra for the white interior - surely attractively profitable for Tesla?
Should be interesting to see what happens over the next 6 months as the initial ordering frenzy is sated. Will they make offers that can't be refused?

 

[Vortex_3]

I'll be waiting next 3 months

 

[Vostok]

Yeah this bugged me too but I succumbed in the end and got LR AWD with black interior. I did ask Tesla about this and someone very senior in Tesla (I cannot say who) said it was a factory decision around minimising build variants for economic reasons.

There are differences between the UK and AU/NZ builds (different homologation requirements), and there are fixed costs in changeovers to build each variant. So the more variants, the more fixed costs incurred, but not more profitability. So eliminating some of the options for AU/NZ keep it viable given we are a very small Tesla market. UK buys 6-7x more Teslas than we do, so are a big enough market to offer more options. Some might argue we should be grateful Tesla serves us at all.

I don’t like it, but I understand it. If Tesla grows strongly here in coming years, things might get better.

 

[nuckles]

In the same boat. Had a reservation for 2 years just cancelled because it looks like white seats in sr+ might never happen. Sad 6 months ago I was ready to order a tesla.

 

[Vortex_3]

Yeah this bugged me too but I succumbed in the end and got LR AWD with black interior. I did ask Tesla about this and someone very senior in Tesla (I cannot say who) said it was a factory decision around minimising build variants for economic reasons.

There are differences between the UK and AU/NZ builds (different homologation requirements), and there are fixed costs in changeovers to build each variant. So the more variants, the more fixed costs incurred, but not more profitability. So eliminating some of the options for AU/NZ keep it viable given we are a very small Tesla market. UK buys 6-7x more Teslas than we do, so are a big enough market to offer more options. Some might argue we should be grateful Tesla serves us at all.

I don’t like it, but I understand it. If Tesla grows strongly here in coming years, things might get better.

But, there are even smaller countrys than ours, and they have all the options, including wheels and towbar.
Once again, it's not far.

 

[Vostok]

But, there are even smaller countrys than ours, and they have all the options, including wheels and towbar.
Once again, it's not far.

Which countries? Small countries in EU don’t count, because Tesla only have to do one homologation for all of Europe. So those “small” countries are actually part of a single big common market, so of course they have access to all the options.

If you look at Tesla’s Model 3 config pages for Hong Kong, Japan and Macau (all RHD markets), they also don’t have the option of a white interior on anything other than P+. In fact Australia got LR AWD on the menu before any of those markets did.

In what way is a company making a rational commercial decision “not fair”? I get it that you don’t like it [I would prefer it otherwise as well] but “fair” doesn’t come into it.

 

[Vortex_3]

Which countries? Small countries in EU don’t count, because Tesla only have to do one homologation for all of Europe. So those “small” countries are actually part of a single big common market, so of course they have access to all the options.

If you look at Tesla’s Model 3 config pages for Hong Kong, Japan and Macau (all RHD markets), they also don’t have the option of a white interior on anything other than P+. In fact Australia got LR AWD on the menu before any of those markets did.

In what way is a company making a rational commercial decision “not far”?

But there is white interior in australia.
So there is spare parts, change of configuration in the production line... and also there people cancelling they reservations because of it, so there is less sales and less representation of the white interior.
I'm sorry, I'm one of them.
I've been following Tesla for years, and model 3 standart in white was my dream car.
My wife says get the black... but I'm stubborn

 

[Vostok]

But there is white interior in australia.
So there is spare parts, change of configuration in the production line... and also there people cancelling they reservations because of it, so there is less sales and less representation of the white interior.
I'm sorry, I'm one of them.
I've been following Tesla for years, and model 3 standart in white was my dream car.
My wife says get the black... but I'm stubborn

Did you read my earlier post explaining Tesla’s reasoning for this? Yes they have white seats option in P+, but clearly they have done the maths that they can make it a profitable option given the margins on this particular car. But they can’t make it work on LR AWD and SR+ in this market. Apparently there have been a much larger number of P+ orders than LR AWD, which makes it even harder to justify adding extra options to LR AWD. And SR+ just doesn’t have the margins at our volumes.

How you respond to this situation is entirely up to you. You either buy from what’s available from the menu or you don’t buy. I waited 4 months, but in the end, I decided that exiting the fossil fuel economy sooner rather than later (esp. given the current “climate emergency”) was far more important than my personal preference for a white interior. So I puts me money down. If you want to wait longer in the hope this situation changes, I wish you luck.

 

[baillies]

But there is white interior in australia.
So there is spare parts, change of configuration in the production line... and also there people cancelling they reservations because of it, so there is less sales and less representation of the white interior.
I'm sorry, I'm one of them.
I've been following Tesla for years, and model 3 standart in white was my dream car.
My wife says get the black... but I'm stubborn

I wouldn’t be surprised if white becomes an option (early) next year. White has always been production constrained and limited to P at first release. White was popular in UK so not offered here at first but some important customers complained and it was added to P. It seems most of the backlog will be completed early next year so more options may become available if they want to push some demand levers.

The main reason to not offer white is it limits the number of choices and with model 3 they will ship inventory then match latter rather than build to order, much harder to match with different interior (and wheel) options. They got stuck with a lot of S/X inventory in Q1 this year and sold them off with large discounts before announcing raven, I guess they don’t want to repeat this if they can avoid it. The model 3 battery is over 2 years old so a 10% capacity increase could be coming next year (I think battery day is end Q1)

US will probably also get a 1-2K price reduction in Q1, not clear if this will apply outside US.