Tesla to start production of base trim $35k Model 3 in next 8 months

[The_Tron]

Elon Musk’s prediction last July that the Model 3’s production hell is coming to an end seems to be ringing true. Tesla is currently in the final month of Q3 2018, and according to Musk in a letter to employees shared last Friday, the company is on the cusp of its “most amazing quarter” yet, as it prepares to build and deliver “more than twice as many cars” as it did in the second quarter.

The catalyst for Tesla’s growth is the Model 3. Dubbed by Elon Musk as a “bet-the-company” vehicle, the Model 3’s success or failure could dictate Tesla’s future. So far, though, the Model 3 has been performing well, being dubbed by auto sales tracking website GoodCarBadCar as the 5th best-selling passenger car in the United States last August. Tesla was able to achieve this despite producing only three variants of the electric car — the Long Range RWD, the Long Range AWD, and the AWD Performance version. The Model 3’s base trim, which is expected to cost $35,000 before any options, is still not being produced.

If Tesla plays its cards right, the $35,000 standard trim Model 3 could very well become a fossil-fuel car killer. At its price point, the base Model 3 becomes comparable in price to some of the United States’ best-selling passenger cars like the Toyota Camry, whose top-of-the-line XSE V6 trim is priced at $34,950. While the potential of the $35,000 Model 3 is vast, Tesla and even CEO Elon Musk have been quite conservative when releasing updates about the upcoming electric sedan.

 

 

That is, until now. Just recently, Worm Capital analysts Eric Markowitz and Dan Crowley published a post on the financial firm’s website outlining their insights on Tesla after a tour of Gigafactory 1. Tesla’s head of investor relations Martin Viecha facilitated the tour, while also provided some updates on the company’s upcoming projects. Among these projects was the $35,000 standard trim Model 3.

According to the analysts, they were informed that the Model 3’s base variant, which is equipped with a shorter-range battery, would likely start production “in the next 8 months.” With this statement in mind, it appears safe to infer that by April or Mar 2019, Tesla would be manufacturing the $35,000 base Model 3.

Contrary to an emerging Tesla bear thesis that demand for the Model 3 is declining, the analysts noted that the electric car maker is currently focused on selling higher-margin cars such as the Model 3 Performance and the Long Range AWD Model 3, where “demand continues to exceed what is being produced.” This is in line with Tesla head of sales Robin Ren’s statement in the Q2 2018 earnings call, when he noted that the company is seeing “more orders for the All-Wheel Drive dual-motor car and performance cars combined than the rear wheel drives.”
Musk unveiling the production Model 3. [Credit: Gene/Teslarati]
Back in June, Tesla CEO Elon Musk provided a rough estimate as to when the initial production of the $35,000 Standard trim Model 3 would begin. Musk also noted that Tesla would likely start producing the vehicle’s smaller battery packs at the end of 2018.

“We will definitely offer a $35,000 version of the Model 3. And probably at the end of this year is when we will be able to make a smaller version of the battery pack, and get into volume production of $35,000 version in Q1 next year. We would definitely honor that obligation, and we would do so right now if it were possible,” Musk said.

The recent timeline related by Martin Viecha covers and exceeds Q1 2019, considering that his estimated timeframe ends at either April or May next year. That being said, Tesla definitely appears to be getting ready for the rollout of the $35,000 base Model 3, as well as succeeding models like the standard-range AWD version. Once Tesla is manufacturing the full range of the Model 3’s variants, it would not be too surprising if the vehicle ends up dethroning best-selling passenger cars like the Toyota Camry in the United States.

The Tesla Model 3’s base variant has a 220-mile range, a 0-60 mph time of 5.6 seconds, and a top speed of 130 mph. The vehicle starts at $35,000 before any options.

 

Source: https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-base-trim-production-2019/

 

Finally a Tesla I can hope of buying.

 

 

PS if you're wondering why I've been so inactive, its because school is a pain

[RAM555789]

This seems pretty cool, and affordable electric car. I want mine to include a nuclear fusion reactor, think they can do it

[I-r0k]

This just shows that some weed can go a long way for Elon. 

[GDRRiley]

cool.

So what this means is I've got to get my civic to below 5.5s 0-60 that way I can smoke some silly kids in Teslas. 

[pipnina]

I'm 20 right now, and have not even begun learning to drive yet. I do wonder if the EV will be a much more common (and affordable) option by the time I get to buying my first new car (I would imagine my first car will be some wonky 2nd hand Ka or C1...)

 

It does seem odd to me that it is only Tesla offering any particularly affordable EV, or even offering an EV at all. Most manufacturers either offer hybrids or one EV throughout their whole range (and it's usually not particularly sporty). One would think that the push made by governments, consumers and the threat of being caught out by Tesla would be enough to see more effort from the likes of Volvo, Ford, Honda or even the more up-market brands such as Lamborghini and Ferrari.

 

Having seen the effort Elon puts into getting Tesla going I will find it difficult to believe other companies will be able to catch up easily if they don't already have serious plans.

 

Given as the UK government wants the last carbon-burning car to be sold in 2030, the clock is ticking.

[DrMacintosh]

I kinda liked Elon and Tesla, but then Elon smoked weed on air while any one of his employees would get fired for smoking weed on their free time, yet alone when they are on air, being the face of the company. 

[GDRRiley]

Just now, pipnina said:

Given as the UK government wants the last carbon-burning car to be sold in 2030, the clock is ticking.

Ha, there still use and need for them. 

We still have yet to see an electric car that can handle off road, or one that can do those always fun all night drives.

[rcmaehl]

Just remember to enable car 2FA if you get one. Otherwise your car will be gone within 30 seconds of parking

 

https://www.esat.kuleuven.be/cosic/fast-furious-and-insecure-passive-keyless-entry-and-start-in-modern-supercars/

[Brooksie359]

7 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

I kinda liked Elon and Tesla, but then Elon smoked weed on air while any one of his employees would get fired for smoking weed on their free time, yet alone when they are on air, being the face of the company. 

Who cares? That's equivalent to saying someone was drinking a beer on air. Yeah if you drink a beer at work it's probably going to end bad but doing it in certain company events is likely fine. 

[DrMacintosh]

2 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Who cares? That's equivalent to saying someone was drinking a beer on air. Yeah if you drink a beer at work it's probably going to end bad but doing it in certain company events is likely fine. 

It’s called a double standard. 

[pipnina]

2 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Who cares? That's equivalent to saying someone was drinking a beer on air. Yeah if you drink a beer at work it's probably going to end bad but doing it in certain company events is likely fine. 

You also have to consider that in Nevada, despite it being legal, you are not allowed to drive or operate machinery "under the influence". This could be part of why the drug tests are done.

 

More cynically you could say that it is used as an excuse to fire people management/Elon don't like. Either way Elon taking half a puff is hardly anything to get mad about.

[Brooksie359]

5 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

It’s called a double standard. 

There are lots of double standards for normal employees and CEOs. That's pretty standard. 

[Monkey Dust]

But can they build the 35K version profitably??? Because so far that has been the kicker for Tesla, selling cars easy, turning a profit on said cars not so much.

[pipnina]

2 minutes ago, Monkey Dust said:

But can they build the 35K version profitably??? Because so far that has been the kicker for Tesla, selling cars easy, turning a profit on said cars not so much.

I thought the cars were turning profit recently, but their expenditure on optimizing the line means that they are still losing money over all?

[PlayStation 2]

I'm not really sure if Tesla starting production on a vehicle counts as tech news.

[bcredeur97]

will the company survive that long though? didn't one of their analysts say they were on track to go bankrupt by early next year?

[S w a t s o n]

3 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

I kinda liked Elon and Tesla, but then Elon smoked weed on air while any one of his employees would get fired for smoking weed on their free time, yet alone when they are on air, being the face of the company. 

you wot? I'm sure lots of tesla employees smoke weed

[pipnina]

Just now, S w a t s o n said:

you wot? I'm sure lots of tesla employees smoke weed

I don't know much about it, but it does seem like the company performs drug testing (at least in some situations) and may fire employees over it.

I never found much in the way of sources outside of angry ex-employees though, so it doesn't go very deep and is from a very single-sided perspective.

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, S w a t s o n said:

you wot? I'm sure lots of tesla employees smoke weed

And have been fired for doing so on their own free time. There was a story of a girl who was on medication that contained THC and she got fired from Tesla because she failed the drug test they did on her and didn’t care that she was on medication. 

Secular Talk breaks down the story: 

 

 

Yet “Papa Elon” can smoke weed on air in public and still keep his job.....

[S w a t s o n]

Just now, pipnina said:

I don't know much about it, but it does seem like the company performs drug testing (at least in some situations) and may fire employees over it.

I never found much in the way of sources outside of angry ex-employees though, so it doesn't go very deep and is from a very single-sided perspective.

I would need to see some sort of source or proof of that but there are some factors to consider even if they do drug test. May not test or may not fire for THC. May only be testing factory workers which could be required by law or liability due to heavy machinery.

[S w a t s o n]

4 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

And have been fired for doing so on their own free time. There was a story of a girl who was on medication that contained THC and she got fired from Tesla because she failed the drug test they did on her and didn’t care that she was on medication. 

Secular Talk breaks down the story: 

 

 

Yet “Papa Elon” can smoke weed on air in public and still keep his job.....

Of course the CEO can smoke weed and still keep his job, he's the CEO. Do you think Tim Cook doesn't get more leeway than any other Apple employee? Ignoring the fact that Elon IS Tesla, it may be a public company but he may as well still own it. The media can talk about removing him all they like, the shareholders bought into Musk as much as they bought into Tesla

 

See my above post about the testing, I would hope that if they do fire for THC it's only in illegal states or due to the other factors I mentioned

[BuckGup]

3 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

I kinda liked Elon and Tesla, but then Elon smoked weed on air while any one of his employees would get fired for smoking weed on their free time, yet alone when they are on air, being the face of the company. 

Yeah but he owns the company. Most bosses are coked up but would fire employees because of their race. He also stated why he doesn't like it

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, S w a t s o n said:

THC is only in illegal states or due to the other factors I mentioned

This case happened in California, a state where weed is legal. As for any potential liability, I haven’t seen anything to indicate it’s required to fire someone if they are on a medication that contains THC. If there is such a law, it’s freaking retarded. 

[DrMacintosh]

2 minutes ago, BuckGup said:

Yeah but he owns the company. Most bosses are coked up but would fire employees because of their race. He also stated why he doesn't like it

And any of those are legitimate excuses because? He doesn’t own it anymore, Tesla is public. Telling people to live one way and not living that way yourself is wrong. 

[S w a t s o n]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

This case happened in California, a state where weed is legal. As for any potential liability, I haven’t seen anything to indicate it’s required to fire someone if they are on a medication that contains THC. If there is such a law, it’s freaking retarded. 

As the girl in the video herself states, it looks like she was fired more as an easy excuse rather than a THC positive test. I mean she literally told them beforehand and wasn't fired on the spot.

 

Sure it's not a positive situation but it's not what you are making it out to be either, Elon musk smoking weed is not a problem