Will Tesla's Model 3 Compete? Thoughtful design analysis by Randy Carlson. Positive!

[Benz]

Will Tesla's Model 3 Compete? Thoughtful design analysis by Randy Carlson. Understanding of car batteries and automotive design.

Link: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3258855-will-teslas-model-3-compete

 

[wdolson]

I saw that article a month or so back. It's one of the better speculations about what the Model 3 will look like I've seen. He did a good analysis of what's known and what's likely.

 

[ProphetM]

Yes, I posted it here back in June as I thought it was very good as well. It wasn't then, but now it's behind a registration wall - you can't see past page 1 without registering. Which sucks as it's a good read, but I wouldn't want to register just to read that one piece.

 

[S3XY]

I was able to read the whole article without registering. When I clicked to go to the 2nd page I just hit the escape key to stop loading the page before the popup appeared. The rest of the article can be read just by scrolling down. You don't have to click to get to subsequent pages.

 

[Jeff N]

The article was fun to read but it didn't strike me as being realistic. He assumes the base model will weigh about 3,100 pounds which is 500 pounds more than a BMW i3 yet it will be 37% more efficient than the i3 and will get 170 MPGe. Even that weight estimate is very optimistic since Tesla has hinted that they will use substantial steel to save on manufacturing costs and the BMW uses extensive carbon fiber to save weight that Tesla likely will not use. A higher weight and a more realistic MPGe means using a battery bigger than 44 kWh to keep the 220 mile range and that means using more of the floor pan which means that his plan for lowering the seats no longer works etc. etc. He's made best case assumptions everywhere in his model.