Tesla’s new cut-price EVs: A $39,990 Model Y and $36,990 Model 3
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Or you can just get a RWD EV. It's really fine for most purposes. FWD for ICEs is desirable because of the weight of the engine and because FWD is naturally more prone to understeer rather than oversteer. EVs have a balanced weight distribution with low CG. Electronic traction and stability control basically solve the oversteer problem. On the other hand, EVs with their lower CG, better traction control, and generally narrower tires for the weight do significantly better in the snow than a comparable ICE. If you are happy with a FWD ICE, don't hesitate to get a RWD EV. It will be better in almost every way. If you need or want AWD, you are paying extra for it regardless of motor type
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I suspect Dan Ives and several other pro Tesla stock analysts hate this. For months they have been saying "Tesla has new, more affordable models due out later in the year" and using it to pump the stock. The information has been available for quite some time that Model 2 had been canceled and that these were merely going to be new trim levels of existing cars. Even Elon confirmed this in an earnings call. But both Tesla and the people covering the stock continued to say "new models." I believe this was a very deliberate phrasing designed to falsely imply that Tesla had an entirely new car due to come out.
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Tesla's recent stock rebound has been all about its AI and robotics pivot (i.e. "Master Plan Part IV"). Musk is now claiming that 80% of Tesla's "value" will be from Optimus robots, and is targeting the production of 50,000 to 100,000 units by 2026, and 500,000 to 1 million units each year by the end of the decade.
In the latest investor communications, EVs are clearly positioned as Tesla's past. It's all about "bots" now. Investors have lapped it up.
So this kind of small refresh to its EVs makes sense. Tesla is no longer really a car company. That's a legacy product that's been relegated to "maintenance" mode, while it looks to turning robots into a "multi-trillion-dollar market".
Maybe this is how "Full Self Driving" will be delivered. A robotic chauffeur, who will drive you around town. Forget all that nonsense about Full Self Driving being overdue... the updated version will also cook your dinner for you.
I fully expect Tesla to start taking pre-payments for personal robots some time soon. I mean, with its track-record on timely delivery, who wouldn’t want to make a down-payment?
In the latest investor communications, EVs are clearly positioned as Tesla's past. It's all about "bots" now. Investors have lapped it up.
So this kind of small refresh to its EVs makes sense. Tesla is no longer really a car company. That's a legacy product that's been relegated to "maintenance" mode, while it looks to turning robots into a "multi-trillion-dollar market".
Maybe this is how "Full Self Driving" will be delivered. A robotic chauffeur, who will drive you around town. Forget all that nonsense about Full Self Driving being overdue... the updated version will also cook your dinner for you.
I fully expect Tesla to start taking pre-payments for personal robots some time soon. I mean, with its track-record on timely delivery, who wouldn’t want to make a down-payment?
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The piece I don't understand is that Tesla could easily have two-three business structures - Tesla Vehicles, Tesla Robotics and even Tesla Power for the battery stuff if Tesla wishes. Write agreements between them & place a car CEO in Tesla Vehicles & then effect a spin-off. It'd allow the vehicle part of the business to go about doing vehicle stuff - refreshes, production & promotion, building the car part of the Robotaxi, selling any remaining credits in different markets etc. And the Robotics piece could move ahead with the speculative stuff. Shareholders could then choose which pieces they prefer to own or retain all of it if they wish.
That Tesla doesn't want to do this is interesting IMO.
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Gnafu the Great
Ars Centurion
Based on the comments I've been seeing under coverage of all of Microsoft's missteps with Windows 11 (not to mention Valve's great work in recent years), I am very happy to bet on the year of the Linux desktop coming first (and frankly, this year in some respects).
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The 2025 refresh is the free-est speech trim package in Tesla history. No glass roof to be disturbed by chem trails or climate change. No AM/FM radio to keep Art Bell and NPR out. Cheap headlights to keep you from seeing anything woke. Limited colors because Elon only sees white. /s
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steelcobra
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
Annual model year updates also mean that when you say "I have a 20XX Prio Vendu" the mechanics know exactly which service manual and parts it has. A Model S from last year and one from 10 years ago are "the same car" from Tesla's stance but can have wildly different components.
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I can't think of a more efficient way of announcing to the world "I am a sucker, a rube, a Johnny-come-lately" than buying an EV with a given capacity of battery pack physically present in the vehicle but only being allowed to use some lower soft-locked percentage of that capacity because you didn't pony up enough dough.
Or buying a vehicle with all the hardware required for some level of advanced driver assistance (theoretically) but not actually being able to use those features because you didn't pony up enough dough.
Or buying a vehicle that already has a panoramic glass roof which has then been covered by a headliner because you didn't pony up enough dough.
Even if you're the sort of person who wishes Elon was their daddy, you're an utter moron if you're even vaguely considering buying one of these boring and obsolete Griftwagens.
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Could I take half of his $100 billion compensation plan, if I too just half ass my way toward keeping the business afloat while pursuing side projects as if I’m only in charge of an R&D division?
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People rushing to buy before it expired on October first, basically lots of purchases for the upcoming quarter got pulled left into the last one to beat the deadline
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Tesla execs keep bailing, because the Tesla ketamine plan makes no sense.
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Not with those prices it's not, it's solidly priced in the lower luxury bracket, it's not priced like a mass market vehicle like a Corolla, and Tesla absolutely pitches it as a luxury model albeit the oxymoronic "affordable luxury" segment
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I love my Mach-E. I was not a huge fan of the Equinox (not that it's a bad car). Didn't test drive the Ioniq 5 but that would be my other choice.
Bolt and Leaf are great especially for city-dwelling folk. not so sure about the 500e but I do think it's cool.
Edit: the Ford dealer I bought mine from is a volume dealer and runs stupid good discounts..I just checked and they are offering $5500 off MSRP and 0% financing for 72months.
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321 miles - so assuming Tesla math, it gets about 270 miles per charge (assuming you want to drive it to 0 which you don't) so really about 240 usable.
https://insideevs.com/reviews/443791/ev-range-test-results/
https://insideevs.com/reviews/443791/ev-range-test-results/
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"30% Space Time Efficiency Improvement"Remember the lies that would supposedly enable a 25K car. Elon, the self ascribed greatest manufacturing mind in existence, came up with the revolutionary "Unboxed Manufacturing" process that would reduce costs by as much as 40% (hilarious picture attached). Cancelled.
Then there was an also revolutionary new battery design: lighter, cheaper, higher density. Also vaporware.
He must be really smart since space time is a smart person thing. No wonder investors love giving him money.
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Mine consistently outperforms its EPA range by 20-30 miles, which is nice, even with gnarlier tires than the stock ones.
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It is. It’s just not the obvious winner it once was. Plus, any new Tesla has to compete with a late model used one, and those things got real cheap last year.
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Yeah I don’t see these models being a winner. Are there that many people clamoring for a bottom of the line Y/3?
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No idea how someone in their right mind would buy these cars and support that scumbag that does Nazi salutes! Thinking we are stupid. He practiced those Nazi salutes and got so happy his orange man won and thought he could get away with it.
You are literally supporting a Nazi anti immigrant man become a trillionaire. Think about that a damn trillionaire!
You are literally supporting a Nazi anti immigrant man become a trillionaire. Think about that a damn trillionaire!
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And Hyundai has the Ionic which is available at 2,256.00 in 1927 dollars! that beats the snot out of 30K! Also, I don't give a
about bull false equivalences.
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Year of the Linux Desktop. No two ways about it. That one, at least, has a plausible path towards reality. FSD, on the other hand, is doomed to be vaporware (in the context of the original promises, rather than the watered down "this is what we can actually achieve" version they're trying to claim it always was) until such time as either Musk kicks the bucket (may it happen soon), or is ousted from the company (slightly less preferable, but if it leaves him bankrupt I'd be okay with that outcome.)
Note that I said "plausible path", not "likely path". But plausible is still light years ahead of what Tesla has in the FSD space.
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That model requires separate leadership. Has Tesla ever done anything (aside from making and selling their existing line-up) without Musk actively leading the effort? It's not clear there is any leadership in the company when he's not there (and he's often not there).
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Corolla was, I admit, overreaching. Camry fits; nicer trims of the hybrid Camry top the price of the new 3. The bZ with the larger battery is within a few hundred bucks of the new Y, for the equivalent range. The new Y is cheaper than a RAV 4 PHEV. The new 3 is $3k more than the Prius PHEV, which is itself $5k more than the Prius. These are not high-end cars by any stretch of the imagination.
"Premium" or "affordable luxury" is where the 3 was initially placed to compete with -- Audi A4 or BMW 3 series. The new trim is 20% cheaper than any A5 or BMW 3 series, and 10% cheaper than the cheapest A3 (the A4 doesn't exist anymore). It's clear the intent for the new trim is not to compete with what the release model was meant to compete with. Basically, the 3 and Y are going downmarket.
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In the case of Tesla, your new car looking like an older model could be considered an advantage. You can still slap one of those "I bought this before Musk went crazy" bumper stickers on it and most people won't know the difference.
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Not far enough to be a Toyota, that price is still on par with Lexus, Toyota's actual luxury mauque. A camry costs a full 10k less than this new "cheapened" tesla and still includes such basic features as, a radio, and the corolla is even less
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I actually like a lot of those changes, but it's still not nearly enough "decontenting" to make me consider buying one. Knock another 10 grand off, and... nah, probably still nah.
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And the continual reduction of safety features, and the lack of good emergency door unlocking, and the crappy firmware updates that kill functionality that used to work well (GPS is not the only failure with some updates), etc.
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Not in Australia, it doesn't.
The most expensive Camry SL I can find is $AU59,867 (driveaway pricing). The cheapest Model 3 - rear-wheel drive with white paint - is $AU60,205 (driveaway pricing, same state, so comparing apples to apples in that respect.)
It's possible that the "new 3" isn't available in Australia yet. But I will say that, given the choice between any Model 3 or the Camry SL, I would absolutely choose the Camry without hesitation. It's a better car in almost every respect; the only advantage the Model 3 has is the power source. Which, I won't deny, is not insignificant - but frankly, if you're talking pure electric vehicles, for the price of the Model 3, I'd much rather get the Kia EV3. Long range EV3 starts at $AU56,490, driveaway pricing. (There are probably other EVs on the market that are viable alternatives at similar pricing, that's just the one I found in a very quick check.)
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FSTargetDrone
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Not if Teslas were free and generated infinite power would I ever conceive of owning one.
Fuck Schmusk and his companies. May everything he ever does or attempts to do turn to ash.
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Remember the lies that would supposedly enable a 25K car. Elon, the self ascribed greatest manufacturing mind in existence, came up with the revolutionary "Unboxed Manufacturing" process that would reduce costs by as much as 40% (hilarious picture attached). Cancelled.
Then there was an also revolutionary new battery design: lighter, cheaper, higher density. Also vaporware.
In China, the average cost of a BEV as of 2025 is around $25,000. The cheapest Electric vehicles go for as little as $4000. BEV's in China are now cheaper than ICE vehicles. The future is now, but it's in China.
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Don't forget about the electric door locks that stop functioning during a fire and cook you alive.
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If they were free, and I could defeat the surveillance, I'd take one. That would be making Musk poorer.
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The USA has around 300,000 industrial robots in operation today. China has over 2 million, adding hundreds of thousands of new units per year.
Plus:
"At the start of this year, TeslaTSLA $437.00 (-4.50%) CEO Elon Musk said on an earnings call that his company planned to build 10,000 Optimus robots for internal use in 2025. On that same call, he hedged and said he thought the company would definitely build “several thousand” of the bots and that they would “be doing useful things by the end of the year.” Tesla apparently abandoned those plans this summer, according to new reporting from The Information, amid “difficulty Tesla has had with the hands for the robots” and other problems."
Sad trombone.
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Is this a result of it being easier to build like that or a thing targeted at the big chunk of car guys who thinks front drive is the devil? Mind you, old rear drive cars is a lot of fun in the snow...
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A better comparison would be between Musk's FSD and Felon45's wonderful health care package (due out in two weeks, some 10 years ago). They both have infinity years in sight.
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