A $35,000 price (before presumed tax rebates) would really make this car a very much more main-stream vehicle rather than a "Luxury Car".<p>If they can pull off the whole charger network expansion thing, this will be Tesla's bread and butter car for a while.
I thought for a minute that the site was an Onion-esque parody site considering the first couple paragraphs deal with how they tried to name their models after the word 'sex'.
<i>FYI, the Model 3 images used by @AutoExpress were mock-ups based on their own speculation.</i><p><a href="https://twitter.com/TeslaMotors/status/489200528908226561" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/TeslaMotors/status/489200528908226561</a>
Another step in the master plan:<p><i>Almost any new technology initially has high unit cost before it can be optimized and this is no less true for electric cars. The strategy of Tesla is to enter at the high end of the market, where customers are prepared to pay a premium, and then drive down market as fast as possible to higher unit volume and lower prices with each successive model.<p>Without giving away too much, I can say that the second model will be a sporty four door family car at roughly half the $89k price point of the Tesla Roadster and the third model will be even more affordable. In keeping with a fast growing technology company, all free cash flow is plowed back into R&D to drive down the costs and bring the follow on products to market as fast as possible. When someone buys the Tesla Roadster sports car, they are actually helping pay for development of the low cost family car.</i><p><a href="http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-just-between-you-and-me" rel="nofollow">http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-p...</a>
I had a chance to drive a Model S down Mt. Evans in CO at an owner event. We need to buy a new car in August but have a hard time justifying the price of the Model S. We're looking at some fairly nice traditional vehicles (335xi, IS350, X3, Q5, etc) and it literally feels like we're buying obsolete technology. While other cars are advertising 9 speed transmissions I'm thinking why should I feel a car shifting? Why should the torque curve be non-instant and non-linear? Why should we ever go to gas stations?<p>In fact, I'm pretty tempted to just drive our oldest car into the ground and wait until the 3rd gen comes out as I can't imagine wanting anything else.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a 4-wheel-drive Tesla model for those of us who live where it snows copiously... but that price tag might be a game-changer regardless. That's going to open up a whole new demographic for them.
I surely hope Tesla will get this car to market on time. The timeline of 2016-2017 seems very aggressive given the Gigafactory has not even found a location let allow begun producing batteries. Elon has noted that a big issue with the "cheaper" Tesla was getting battery cost down aka building the factory to produce them at huge scale. Combine this with producing a more easily purchased vehicle due to lower price and I could see a battery shortage issue.<p>My second hope: that the Model III won't have a 3 month lead time like the Model S currently does.
If it's going to be called "3", then 3 horizontal bars mimics the numeral as well as resembling the letter E enough to still allow the SEX joke/marketing/whatever.
Jaguar also just announced a car for this category: <a href="http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/jaguar-xe-small-saloon-2014-07-15" rel="nofollow">http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/jaguar-xe-small-saloon-20...</a>
If you notice, III is 'E' rotated counterclockwise by 90 degrees - subtle but genius response to Ford's "hey Tesla, you cannot use Model E. If you do, we will sue you!"
I don't know how many people own a 3 series here but as a person that owns one I feel that this title should be more about the fact that this competes with a Prius more than a 3 series. If it has $35k price point it makes it cost ~10k more than a stock Prius or the same price as a Prius with most of the options. It would cost about the same as if the $7,500 is extended, which I think will be extended. Helping Tesla allows speaks to both parties ideals. It helps the environment, is an example of the american dream and can be framed as a reason for cutting taxes.
It's entirely possible the naming decisions are being made by Musk himself. If they are not, I find this article an irritating exemplar of the CEO-centric view of the world that many articles -- and many CEOs -- seem to take. If they <i>are</i>, well, that goes double.
Got to drive a Tesla last weekend. If this car is anything like the one I drove, even remotely close, Tesla wins. And I'm not even talking about the electronics panel.