Tesla's Promised $35,000 Model 3 Is Still a Long Way Off (engadget.com)

When the Model 3 was first unveiled, it was pitched as an EV for the masses that would have a reasonable $35,000 price. Two years later and we still don't have a clear timeline as to when the $35,000 Model 3 will ship. In fact, Elon Musk last weekend unveiled the pricing and specs of a newer, more expensive Model 3 with AWD. It will cost $78,000. Engadget reports: CEO Elon Musk recently tweeted that the $35,000 Model 3 now won't ship until three to six months after Tesla achieves its 5,000 vehicle-per-week production goal. The reason for the new delay in the base model is simple: If the company was to ship it now, it would lose money on every vehicle and "die," as Musk put it. If Tesla had hit its initial forecasts and was producing 5,000 vehicles a week by January, the base, $35,000 Model 3 probably wouldn't have been delayed by so much. One potential problem for Tesla, as the WSJ points out, is that many of the 500,000 buyers who laid down a $1,000 deposit did so expecting to buy a $35,000 car, not a $49,000 one. When they get a letter saying the time has come to configure their EVs, quite a few might decide to back out, which could impact Tesla's already precarious cash flow situation.

Comments

Re: 35K Tesla

[Rei]

Wow, who knew that batteries cost the same between all manufacturers, regardless of how much capex they pour into getting production costs down?

And who knew that a 60kWh battery (Bolt) costs the same as a 50kWh battery (Model 3 SR)?

You learn something new every day!

Hint: just from a raw materials perspective alone, Tesla is already running at better than 8:1:1 NCA, aka less than 10% cobalt in the cathode metals, a goal that most manufacturers are working towards in their next gen batteries. But raw materials in turn are just a fraction of the cost of the cells; it's by and large about mass production, to get cell costs closer to raw materials costs (which are only around ~$60/kWh). Remind me, who else built a Gigafactory?