This past week Tesla revealed the Model 3 and reservations have been beyond almost everyone's wildest expectations with over 325k reservations in the first week.
Model 3 is drop-dead gorgeous. Here's an album of photos I took at the event that show the car from various angles, http://imgur.com/a/ZAMXn .
Check out Tesla's overview of the Model 3 and Elon's keynote video here, https://www.teslamotors.com/model3 .
You can also view various test rides from people at the event here, http://electrek.co/2016/04/01/tesla-model-3-video-roundup/ .
Here are some of my thoughts regarding the Model 3 after being able to see it in person and take a test ride:
* Interior: the car was spacious in the rear and the glass roof was stunning (I've attached a photo here). The glass roof makes riding in the rear seats a completely different experience than other cars. At the center of the front dash is a 15" horizontal screen. However, there is no instrument panel in front of the driver so it's a bit odd. I hope they reconsider or they add a heads up speedometer (projected onto windshield screen).
* Acceleration: The test ride car was an all-wheel drive version (not sure if it was performance or not), but the acceleration was similar to my P85... maybe a tad bit slower but that could have been due to 5 adults being in the car.
* Handling: The car felt like it handled well with a low-center of gravity. Similar to the Model S.
* Frunk/Trunk: The frunk seemed a decent size and the trunk was similar to cars the size of the Model 3.
* Exterior: On the test track it was difficult to distinguish the Model 3 and the Model S (they had a Model S giving test rides as well). In many ways, the Model 3 looks and feels like a smaller Model S. And I think that's a large part of the appeal of the car. Most people would love to have a Tesla but it's most often out of their budget/price range. So, when you give people a chance to afford a slightly smaller Tesla for a price that's within reach, you get hundreds of thousands of people to sign up.
Overall, we've witnessed history in the making this past week. Tesla has revealed the most important car in our generation and a car that will change the course of transport and energy consumption in the world. Now Tesla needs to figure out how they can meet the sky-high demand for the car.
Model S
Tesla is rolling out a new valet charging service at Superchargers
Tesla is rolling out a new valet service to facilitate charging at a few stations of the Supercharger network, the automaker’s network of fast-charging stations. Tesla owners arriving at a Supercharger when all stalls are occupied will be offered to have a valet park their car until a stall becomes available and then the valet can move the car and starts the charging session.
The service will likely be especially useful at Tesla’s busiest charging stations in California and other regions where Tesla’s vehicles are becoming increasingly popular.
Elon Musk reportedly visited Mobileye to test tech for next gen Tesla Autopilot
“Among the technologies are a system called DNN (digital neural network), which enables the vehicle to “learn” by gathering data on the move, and even to identify different kinds of road surface; free-space, which enables the automatic vehicle’s systems to identify areas without defined objects such as hard shoulders of roads, sidewalks, and so on, and avoid collisions and deviations from the road; a “holistic path prediction”, which enables a vehicle to select the correct path – on an open road, for example – even when there are no visual hints in the environment; and a sign identification system that can identify over 1,000 signs and road markings in use around the world.”
Model X
Why The Tesla Model X Will Make You Want an American SUV
The Model X is the SUV someone else would have built if they had any balls. It is the world’s greatest SUV in a class of one…a class called The Future. The X is to SUV’s what the S is to luxury sedans, which is what Tesla is to the entire car industry: an icepick in the face of convention.
Model 3
Model 3 Mega Tweetstorm: Tons of new info on production ramp, dashboard, trunk and more
Elon Musk took to Twitter this afternoon to answer questions pertaining to the Model 3. The result is one of the most information-dense Elon “tweetstorms” in recent memory.
Tesla Model 3 Spotted In The Wild In California
A silver Tesla Model 3 is pictured following a Tesla Model S that has been fitted with a rear hatch–mounted camera system zooming down a main street in Marina del Rey, California, which is a beach town just north of where the car was officially unveiled on Thursday.
It's a Tesla
Ben Thompson makes a good case of comparing Tesla to Apple.
Nearly 300,000 people have willingly parted with $1,000 despite the fact they will not have a chance to purchase a car for years; an astounding 115,000 of them sent in their deposit before they even knew what the car looked like. A friend got in line to make his reservation at 6:45am and there were 123 people in front of him. This is, no matter how you measure it, a phenomenon that is nearly unprecedented; the only possible comparison is Apple and its iPhone.
TSLA
Tesla Delivers 14,820 Vehicles in Q1 2016; On Track for Full-Year Delivery Guidance
The root causes of the parts shortages were: Tesla's hubris in adding far too much new technology to the Model X in version 1, insufficient supplier capability validation, and Tesla not having broad enough internal capability to manufacture the parts in-house. The parts in question were only half a dozen out of more than 8,000 unique parts, nonetheless missing even one part means a car cannot be delivered. Tesla is addressing all three root causes to ensure that these mistakes are not repeated with the Model 3 launch.
Tesla may open plant in Suzhou in move to reduce costs: report
US premium electric car producer Tesla Motors Inc may locate a manufacturing plant in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, a media report said Tuesday. According to a document circulated on the Internet on Tuesday, the Suzhou government held a meeting on March 13 to discuss a Tesla project, industry portal d1ev.com reported. The document also said that executives of Tesla had visited Suzhou on March 17 and 18.