The big Tesla announcement is that the $35,000 Tesla Model 3 is now available.
The standard Model 3, with 220 miles of range, a top speed of 130 mph and 0-60 mph acceleration of 5.6 seconds is now available at $35,000. It is built to achieve the same perfect 5-star safety rating as the longer-ranged version, which has the lowest probability of injury of any car ever tested by the U.S. Government.
Telsa is also introducing the Model 3 Standard Range Plus, which offers 240 miles of range, a top speed of 140 mph, 0-60 mph acceleration of just 5.3 seconds and most premium interior features at $37,000 before incentives. For 6% more money, you get 9% more range, more power, and an upgraded interior.
Tesla is shifting sales worldwide to online only in order to save 6% on the cost of vehicles. You can now buy a Tesla in North America via your phone in about 1 minute, and that capability will soon be extended worldwide. We are also making it much easier to try out and return a Tesla, so that a test drive prior to purchase isn’t needed. You can now return a car within 7 days or 1,000 miles for a full refund. Quite literally, you could buy a Tesla, drive several hundred miles for a weekend road trip with friends and then return it for free. With the highest consumer satisfaction score of any car on the road, Telsa is confident you will want to keep your Model 3.
They are making firmware (software) upgrades for both new and existing customers. These upgrades will increase the range of the Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive Model 3 to 325 miles, increase the top speed of Model 3 Performance to 162 mph, and add an average of approximately 5% peak power to all Model 3 vehicles.
$35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Nowhttps://t.co/xZ0J4rbbgM
— Tesla (@Tesla) February 28, 2019
Tesla is Getting $2 Billion in Loans for the China Gigafactory 3
Tesla is getting $2 billion in loans from Chinese lenders to build its massive battery and car plant in Shanghai, according to research from JL Warren Capital.
Elon Musk has said the biggest variable for getting to 500,000-plus a year is to have a factory in China to lower the cost of Tesla cars for chinese consumers.
SOURCES- Tesla, Twitter, CNBC
Written By Brian Wang
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
How little Warren today?
No. Spontaneous. Sorry, truth hurts.
The Tesla owned by the husband of the actress Mary McCormack just decided to catch on fire all by itself while parked, for example. This has been going on for years (2014 Tesla in a garage in Toronto).
No. More fake news by the Musk Fluffer crowd.
There are several cases worldwide. And this has been going on for years.
RIP all other car companies..
In Elon we trust!
I watched a few reviews, but I have not driven one, so I am not speaking from first hand experience, but I have heard that most of the controls that other cars have all over, Tesla just put in the one touch display and you have to move around in the menus to find most of the controls.
There is a button to turn the thing on…do you push that again to turn it off? I don’t know.
Also regeneration usually requires different behavior than normal braking.
I know I would need a lot of clarification. My heap is from the 90’s. And before that the 70’s. It kept on working…what can I say?
Sounds like a lot of controls from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp-jPtKvsIg
No other manufacturer in the world can complete with that. TESLA is at least 5 to 8 years ahead in EV technology.
There was only one case of possible still under investigation spontaneous combustion.
Everyone knows by now they drive like a dream, also hundreds of you tube videos about the car.
Tesla drops the gauntlet, they will continue to sell more cars then they can build, again.
They aren’t getting rid of all the showrooms. Also, They give you a 7-day/1,000mile return policy. But yes, I would not spend that kind of money without a test drive.
By “not so obvious how to use the thing” I assume you mean plugging in the recharger?
I was under the impression that actually driving the thing was just like a standard (powerful, quiet) car.
They don’t have bizarre controls like the start button is on the rearview mirror and the gear selector is under the floormat.
Not like TVRs .
Good idea…but it might not be so obvious how to use the thing, if you never drove one.
$61 a day for Model 3 on Turo app here in San Jose CA to try it out. Will get cheaper with base models coming out.
My Mom’s 75? Cadillac spontaneously caught on fire. And I think it was a similar age Ford of some kind that her friend had that did the same thing. I think it was right after they started putting emissions controls on the cars…the super guzzlers had to burn more gasoline in the emissions system than the engine did. They tended to catch fire 5 minutes after you walked away. No more airflow I suspect.
Wasen’t spontanious, they ran into a piece of metal…and they changed the bottom plate to titanium on that Model S. I am sure they considered that event in the design of the 3 as well. Not sure what they chose in the bottom plate though.
When they go to solid lithium batteries they will not combust…period.
maybe make a deal with enterprise car rentals to showcase and rent Tesla cars? I would go for that if hotel was close to airport… then you get a deal with Marriott hotel to have Tesla chargers as well… then when you are on Expedia booking your hotel and car rental it gives you option to upgrade to tesla car with Marriott hotel…or if they said at car rental place would you like to upgrade to tesla rental for 29 extra dollars…
They don’t!
Ha! You thought of the traveling circus idea too. Beat me by 3 min.
Achieved by cutting the stores. I think there were another options. I think he could have made the car available for this price online as he has, but have a $100 fee, if you want to do test drives and/or order through the brick and mortar store. Or maybe have a once a month event in most major cities where cars and a few sales people travel like a circus. Could even have a white tent. Just set up in parking lots. People can do the test drives and order right there.
Really, the best option is to get production up and sales up by actually advertising a little. They haven’t really tried that obvious option.
Another reasonable option is to pay to display the cars at another dealership. That probably would not be more than $500 per car/month.
Another possibility…I don’t like that much is video about a dozen people with different needs interacting with a Tesla representative…asking all the pertinent questions…and just post all those. Yes, there are reviews online, but it is always one thirty-something guy, rather than a family, or a woman. And they try to be somewhat entertaining rather than going into the minutia of the display and such. Realistic…more like the 2-3 hours you would spend looking at the vehicle. The only reason I don’t like it, is that, unless you actually sit in the thing, you are not going to know how it feels, and you certainly would not know how it feels to drive it. As long as you know someone who has one and can get in the thing, maybe..
90% sure Elon musk is an insane artificial intelligence robotic clone of the original .. how can he sell 1 million Tesla’s cars without a store??? Maybe find every Apple store in the country and park a Tesla car in front in the middle of mall with buytesla.com sign on it??“Tesla traveling circus” to sell cars… I don’t know how else you could sell them if they don’t have a dealership… it’s too wierd to Order a car online for 35,000 and. Never get to see the real car and kick the tires…before spending that much…
All Model 3 battery packs are actual sized. The software unlock made sense to try out for the low volume Model S when there was a backlog already built, but doesn’t make sense for the high scale production 3.
Despite how they have a far higher rate of ‘spontaneous combustion’ than non EV cars do?
Or does DoT even test for that?
I wonder if the battery pack on the low cost model is software limited, to eliminate variance in battery pack models? Is the cost savings from a single battery pack type enough to overcome the cost of additional cells? Tesla previously did software limited packs with the Model S, but if I remember correctly, they stopped selling the “low power” software restricted versions.