Tesla Model 3, New roadster and truck, opinions/discussion

Chris: I thought you would be more for the viking horns.

Ha! With the Helga Hair, too…

Classy.

I think they were a little desperate in trying to find a solution that didn’t look like a Porsche Panamera.

Model S facelift fresh out, today. Predict the predictable. No Helga hair.

Looks great on the road.

You almost nailed it with your mini grille sketch.

The tiny slit grille works much better here. Makes it feel less like a combustion powered car but gives it that central focus point and helps break up the space (especially when the front plate gets put on).

Yep - that’s the one I saw in Car & Driver as well…just feels better.

Elon Musk has been pretty vocal of late with “crowd sourcing” design changes. Already changed the trunk/rear glass, and he’s mentioned that the interior isn’t going to look like that. I wonder if they’re waiting to add to the grill after releasing the new S front end? New S looks very nice. Really well done.

I like Tesla’s design approach to the semi, almost styled like a Ferrari, very low drag and 0-60 in under 6 seconds.
With a 500 mile range (vs 900 for diesel) and 30 minutes for a decent charge, that can revolutionize the over land freight industry.


The design reminds me a bit of the Superbus, a concept from Dutch astronaut Wubbo Ockels.

Then the new Tesla Roadster is back, well that’s something to get excited about. 0-60mph in under 2 seconds and over 600 miles range. With a design reminiscent of the Dodge Viper, in a good way, that is something I would buy over any Ferrari or Lamborghini.

The Roadster is nice but I sure don’t see any Dodge Viper influence. More Porsche Mission E.

I would have preferred the truck without the second “kink”.
Would have been much cleaner in my opinion. Too much sports car DNA for my taste.

I don’t get the Viper comment at all.

I think the truck is very successful visually. It looks like a Tesla, it looks electric. A lot of attention has been paid to aero. The wrap around greenhouse is very impressive. that is something that is very easy to draw but very hard to execute. Notice how the a pillar is completely masked behind the glass ant the transitions look fairly flush. Last time I was up there they said they were bringing a few glass experts in house… makes sense. If you are going to do this kind of simple but difficult to execute work you need the people with the knowledge working with the design team.

One of the released sketches

I really like how the truck looks, particularly because it’s driven by aero efficiency. The massive windows are a great idea given the number of critical blind spots in a regular semi, the driver can literally see the road right in front of the cab. Central seated drive means it can be exported everywhere in the same configuration too. Awesome!

Design looks spectacular on both (minus the weird F1 steering wheel on the roadster).

Will be interesting to see if the truck can meet the commercial success beyond the design and performance though. Trucks have to take a lot of abuse and a lot of mileage for someone to invest in one. Theres not a whole lot of 100,000 mile Model S out there (if any), let alone 250k miles.

Good point. While the success of the tesla band is largely driven by consumer desire commercial vehicles are usually bought by specsheet - what’s the cheapest thing that does the job well. At least for now buying a tesla truck is buying a pig in a poke. If I would own a trucking business I would be intrigued but it will probably be another 5-10 years before I hit that order button, just to see how things shake out in hard numbers.

This is an interesting response to the truck as well:

I’m sure some of those questions could be answered pretty reasonably by “oh yeah, it’s a concept and the production truck will have mirrors or a 2x seating config” and the writer at least realizes that this truck isn’t designed for long haul routes, but theres some interesting thoughts about the UX of a semi cab interior.

I read that Bob Lutz says Tesla is going down and they released this stuff to distract from their constant delays. Looking at the designs and the release schedule, I feel that Lutz might be right. This stuff looks rushed and a little vaporware-ish. Is it just me?

Tesla runs a car business like a software company. They realize they need to get a product out (even if it is rushed) because their early adopter customer base will mostly forgive them later on when they send some UI updates, new horsepower “unlocks”, or new lower control arms because their wheels snapped off.

Lutz comes from the industry where every product is a 7 year life cycle, 3 year bumper refresh, or else.

Is it a distraction? Yeah definitely. They need cash to keep that baby running and keeping public excitement detracts from the fact that the Model 3 is months behind development.