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Elon Musk Announces $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Electric Car 430

Elon Musk has officially unveiled the Tesla Model 3 electric car at the company's facility in Hawthorne, California. The Model 3 is being dubbed as a "mass market affordable car." The base-model Model 3 will be able to travel 0-60MPH in less than 6 seconds, with "versions of the Model 3 that go much faster." In terms of range, it features an EPA range of at least 215 miles per charge. All Model 3's will come standard with autopilot hardware and autopilot safety features. The Model 3 will also fit five adults comfortably, thanks largely in part to the large, rear piece of glass on the roof area. You'll find front and rear trunks, offering more cargo capacity than any cargo gas car with the same external dimensions. Safety is a big concern for Tesla so they've manufactured the Model 3 with a 5 star safety rating in every category. The Model 3 starts at $35,000 with a release date scheduled for 2017. Tesla will take your preorder now for a $1,000 down payment.
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Elon Musk Announces $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Electric Car

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 31, 2016 @11:51PM (#51820761)

    I don't need this car because I can use the hyperloop in order to drive to work at the gigafactory in order to afford a journey to the mars colony!

    • Please...Tesla, just make a SPORTS car again...or at least one that looks like one again like the original Roadster.

      I don't want a family car....

      • Please...Tesla, just make a SPORTS car again...or at least one that looks like one again like the original Roadster.
        I don't want a family car....

        At this time the mass market money is in CUVs, SUVs, pickups, and sedans, in that order. If they're going to be viable long-term, they're going to have to play to the masses. A sports car is a good fourth or fifth model. They'll probably do a small pickup before that, because money.

  • If it has 4 wheel drive and I can use it to haul a couch I might consider test driving one.

  • I certainly hope the interior photos are either just a placeholder or a joke, because having a dashboard as ONLY just a 15" landscape monitor mounted on a pole in the center of the car would be the stupidest design, ever!

    http://www.dragtimes.com/blog/... [dragtimes.com]
    http://www.dragtimes.com/blog/... [dragtimes.com]

    I found others like this:
    http://www.autocarnewshq.com/w... [autocarnewshq.com]
    which look FAR more reasonable, but I can't tell if those are really just Model S.

    • by xlsior ( 524145 )
      If that is truly what it looks like, then it seems like a really odd choice -- you can't even just glance down at the speedometer in that setup, but have to look over at the center of the dashboard?
    • Makes sense to me. If you watch some of the Periscopes that are going up with people riding in the car you can see that there is a special mode for the screen where it puts a speedometer and other instruments in the upper left hand corner.

      I think it's going to be really nice not to have all of that "junk" right in your main view.

      Also: remember that with things like adaptive cruise control and autopilot... we won't really need to look at the speedometer quite as much anymore...

    • They might be embedded/projected on the windshield like you see in some newer BMWs
    • by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

      Since the Model 3 is supposed to have a landscape touchpad, I don't think the last link actually depicts the Model 3.

      And for me not having instruments in my field of vision is quite the dealbreaker. Flicking your eyes down is way faster than having to move your head to the side (since I'm pretty much blind on my right eye, this is what I'd have to do).

      Too bad. OTOH, I just bought a used Mazda CX-9 which I hope to be driving up to another ten years, so it's not a car for me anyway.

  • "Affordable" (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kuzb ( 724081 )

    Basically, affordable 5 - 10 years later when it's good and used. It's no shock that Elon's idea of affordable is anything but. It's the complete disconnect rich people have with the rest of the world showing itself.

    • Re:"Affordable" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by friedmud ( 512466 ) on Friday April 01, 2016 @01:19AM (#51821093)

      It's already been stated many times - but $35k is the average selling price of a car in the US. If that isn't the mark of "affordability"... then what is?

      $35k with financing is ~$600 a month. If you look at this advice from Consumer Reports ( http://www.consumerreports.org... [consumerreports.org] ) it says you should be making ~$75k a year to afford this car. $75k for a household is not "rich" in my book. It's "doing well"... but MANY people will be able to "afford" this car.

      They said "affordable"... they didn't say "cheap".

      • Re:"Affordable" (Score:4, Insightful)

        by DerekLyons ( 302214 ) <fairwater.gmail@com> on Friday April 01, 2016 @01:59AM (#51821223) Homepage

        It's already been stated many times - but $35k is the average selling price of a car in the US. If that isn't the mark of "affordability"... then what is?

        That average is pulled up by larger, more expensive, vehicles such as SUV's and trucks. And given that the Tesla 3 is a sedan - that suggests that average is largely useless as a mark of "affordability" since it includes a large number of vehicles that aren't sedans purchased by a large number of people, the bulk of whom are unlikely to replace those vehicles with sedans. (To be fair, this includes folks driving cheap compacts as well as folks driving expensive SUV's.) A few minutes searching around (but by no means exhaustive) seems to show that the average price of a mid-sized sedan is somewhere in the $20-25k range. So, using your criteria but correcting the numbers to compare apples-to-apples... the Tesla 3 falls well outside the affordable range. (But within the range for luxury sedans, a not inconsiderable market.)
         

        $35k with financing is ~$600 a month. If you look at this advice from Consumer Reports ( http://www.consumerreports.org... [www.consumerreports.org] ) it says you should be making ~$75k a year to afford this car. $75k for a household is not "rich" in my book. It's "doing well"... but MANY people will be able to "afford" this car.

        If you're making in the range of $75k/annum, you're in the top third of US families. Not rich, no, but above average (which is around $55k/annum currently).

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        What amazes me is that people are willing to put down deposits now and then wait 2-3 years for delivery. It's worst outside the US - I'd be surprised if the UK saw any significant number of deliveries of the RHD model before 2019.

        My finance deal is up at the end of this year and I don't want to go back to petrol. Nissan should have a 200 mile range model out by then, or maybe a used Model S if the prices come down. It's not Tesla's fault of course, I just can't see the logic of lending them £100

        • What amazes me is that people are willing to put down deposits now and then wait 2-3 years for delivery.

          Yeah, I'm really kicking myself for that $1000 deposit. If only I had the financial acumen to put it in a 1.55% 24mo CD, it would be worth $31 more in 2 years. That's like a latte every 3 months! I could be really living high on the hog.

          • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            I was thinking of putting it towards a house. There are special high interest savings accounts for people trying to buy their first homes in the UK. When you buy a house the government matches what you saved, so you instantly double your money. It's then generally cheaper to tack the cost of the car on to the mortgage, rather than getting a loan or finance.

      • by kuzb ( 724081 )

        Don't be stupid. Most people do not buy new cars - they buy used cars. Really think about how many people you see driving this year's model and stop being asinine.

    • For many of the initial buyers, it is much more affordable, because of the $7,500 federal tax rebate.
  • While it looks real nice, but that means any damage to the windshield now means a more costly replacement. Is that really a sound engineering decision?

    Plus, unless you are up north, there are many places where the summer sun will literally cook you in the car with the now very pronounced greenhouse effect. Having an option for a more conventional roof which helps to reflect sunlight make more sense.

  • 5 star safety (Score:5, Insightful)

    by YesIAmAScript ( 886271 ) on Friday April 01, 2016 @01:52AM (#51821205)

    "Safety is a big concern for Tesla so they've manufactured the Model 3 with a 5 star safety rating in every category."

    They haven't manufactured it at all yet. And they hope to get a 5 star rating. They don't award the starts themselves, so they'll have to do their best and wait and see what happens like anyone else.

  • by Twinbee ( 767046 ) on Friday April 01, 2016 @03:24AM (#51821461)
    I'm one of the 115,000 who put down a £1000 reservation for this space capsule.

    Take a look at interior [imgur.com], the pictures here [imgur.com] and tell me that's not something to die for.
  • You'll find front and rear trunks, offering more cargo capacity than any cargo gas car with the same external dimensions.

    Why don'tcha slip the word "cargo" in there a few more times?

  • by FlyHelicopters ( 1540845 ) on Friday April 01, 2016 @04:35AM (#51821671)

    http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/... [greenpeace.org]

    Side note, if you're for Electric Vehicles, don't listen to Clinton and don't vote for her.

    She has already gotten $4.5 million from oil and gas companies, and that is the "known" amounts that had to be reported.

    ---

    Note: This doesn't mean anyone on the Republican side would be better, you should probably vote for Bernie Sanders.

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