Tesla Model ≡ Thread

[lemming]

Originally Posted by JST

I'm not sure how Tesla is actually doing this on their balance sheets, but ostensibly some cash from the sale of each Model S and Model X goes to cover supercharging, even for cars (like mine) where it is "included" in the price.

The superchargers are expensive but in the grand scheme of things not THAT expensive (compared, e.g., to the cost of building the Gigafactory). And the average car probably doesn't use them more than a few dozen times in its entire lifespan.

At bottom, you could almost write the cost of the network off as a marketing expense and still justify it.

But I agree with Bren--at some point, it seems likely that Tesla will transition to a different model for the Superchargers, it just won't be at the launch of the Model 3.

they will need to build out a dealer-like infrastructure, too. the Model 3 is a mass market car. the system for dealing with poor build quality on the model S will not be tolerated for people buying the model 3. your S model demographic is typically someone who has 3-5 cars. your model 3 demographic will be an angry bunch.

[ZBB]

On Supercharging, nothing says they can't take $1-2k of all future sales and put it towards building/maintaining/operating the Supercharger network. There's a thread a while back where someone looked at what it would take and it really is not all that much, and it scales well with volume growth. For example $2k * 50k sales = $100 million. At 500k sales its $1B per year.

Supercharger site build is estimated to cost ~$150k on average (for a 6-8 stall site). The rent they pay is peanuts -- some site owners say the pitch from Tesla is that hosting a site will bring you customers, so they negotiate minimal rent (literally $1/month). Energy cost is an ongoing cost -- but 100 cars/day adding 50kWh is 150k kWh per month -- at $0.12 average cost is only $18k -- add in some demand charges here and there, and perhaps it costs $250k per year per site in energy use -- and that may be on the high side since many sites may only get 10-20 cars per day, not 100. There are currently just over 500 sites -- so that's $125 million per year to operate. Double that to $250M for 1000 sites (since they announced last night a doubling of superchargers in the next 2 years), and add in another $38M to build 250 new sites a year -- plus some maintenance cost, and the entire network would cost ~$300MM per year.

As for supporting the fleet, they also announced a doubling of sales and service locations in the next 2 years last night... Elon mentioned targeting mid-size cities next -- in North America, Europe and Asia (which so far has included China, Japan and Australia).

As for build quality -- I wouldn't call it "poor". There definitely was a learning curve with the Model S. My VIN is in the 11k range, and there are a couple items on it that I would call build quality issues -- but the only one that required a repair was a chip in the edge of the interior rear-view mirror that they replaced during a scheduled service. The other build issues are more related to my car being more hand-built than current production -- there is a not quite perfect curve on one of the rear headrests, and one of the chrome trip pieces sticks out a bit more than the other side of the car, etc. My car has been mostly rattle free -- its developed a couple here and there, but I only here them because the car is so quiet, and Tesla has been able to address them when in for service. It just developed another one on our road trip last week -- I'll blame the dust that got in the car on our trip (there were high winds and lots of fine dust in the air that got everywhere -- even when just opening the door to get out)...

[bren]

Elon on Twitter reporting 198k orders now. Seriously.

Thought it would slow way down today, but Model 3 order count is now at 198k. Recommend ordering soon, as the wait time is growing rapidly.

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by bren

Elon on Twitter reporting 198k orders now. Seriously.

A guy I work with put a deposit down this morning...

One of the articles I read this morning had a picture taken last night showing 133k and a comment saying it was going up by 1 per second. The photo was taken after Elon said 115k last night...

[clyde]

I don't mean to be contrarian, but everything about it is hideous. I'm so very happy I wasn't waiting for this.

[JST]

Some pics and vid of the Model 3 "in the wild."

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/thre...he-wild.67100/

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by JST

Some pics and vid of the Model 3 "in the wild."

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/thre...he-wild.67100/

Looks like a photo shoot. Can I say I really like it in silver with those wheels?

[ZBB]

Here's someone's pic from the same photo shoot, with Model S in the background. Stunning design...

[rumatt]

I agree with Jalopnik



http://jalopnik.com/this-is-the-tesl...ail-1768467573

[clyde]

Originally Posted by ZBB

Stunning design...

Um, no. It looks a Mazda 3 knock off reject. That was then uglified in case there were questions about its proper place.