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It was only eight weeks ago when Tesla finally announced that the $35,000 Model 3 would be available to order. This news caused the internet to go crazy on this news as it would become the most affordable model in Tesla's lineup. But late this week, the Californian automaker made some changes to the Model 3 ordering process to "simplify vehicle choices and make Autopilot more affordable." On Thursday, Tesla said in a blog post that the $35,000 Model 3 - known as the Standard Range - would not be available to order online. If you want one, then you need to either find Tesla store that is still open or call the company directly. Why is this happening? (Author's Note: A quick refresher; the Model 3 Standard Range gives you 220 miles, while the Standard Plus offers 240 miles. -WM) There is some dispute to the claim of the Standard Plus outselling the Standard. In late March, The Drive reported that a number of customers have gotten text messages from Tesla saying their deliveries have been pushed back without a new delivery date. Several have reported getting calls from Tesla trying to upsell them into the Standard Plus model. In Tesla's blog post, the off-menu version of the Model 3 will see its range decreased by 10 percent when compared to the Plus model, along with "several features will be disabled via software (including our onboard music streaming service, navigation with live traffic visualization, and heated seats)." Tesla also announced that Standard customers will have the option to upgrade to the Plus at any time, along with the option for Standard Plus owners to convert their model to the Standard and get a small refund "for the difference in cost." As for pricing, the Standard Plus will now set you back $39,500 - up $2,000 over the previous Standard Plus. This is due to Tesla making Autopilot standard on all of their models. No pricing was given for the secret Model 3 Standard. “Tesla is now facing a reckoning. Between the cost cuts, waning demand for its vehicles and now making the $35,000 Model 3 much harder to buy, the company is now quietly realizing it has to play by the same rules as every other automaker,” said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of industry analysis at Edmunds. But wait, there's more! Tesla also announced that it would be offering a lease for Model 3. It is a 36-month lease with mileage options ranging from 10,000 to 15,000 miles per year. But there is a big caveat to this. Unlike most leases where you can buy the car at the end of the lease, Tesla is not allowing any Model 3 customer to buy their vehicle after the lease. The automaker is planning to use them in their upcoming ride-hailing network. Source: Tesla, Bloomberg (Subscription Required) Photo by Vlad Tchompalov on Unsplash View full article

Consumer Reports has rescinded the "Recommended" rating after a high number of survey responses came back with reliability complaints. Survey respondents have indicated that the electronics in the car have issues such the screen freezing or acting as though it was being touched rapidly in multiple locations. This issue would cause music to play, volume to increase to maximum, or the navigation map panning and resizing. Some owners reported issues with trim and paint, with a few, including CR themselves, experiencing a large crack in the rear glass. When the Model 3 came out in 2017 it received an initial rating of average based on the fact that it shares so much technology with the then average rated Model S. Some early adopters reported issues with braking that dropped the score to below average. Telsa issued an over-the-air update to correct the braking issue and the score returned to average. The Model S's rating has been inconsistant as Telsa has made hardware changes over the years. CR dropped the "Recommended" rating from the Model S in the fall of 2018 due to issues with the suspension. Tesla made AWD and air suspension standard on the Model S for model year 2017. The Model X has always had a below average rating and has never earned a "Recommended" largely due to problems with its falcon-wing doors. Tesla is expected to debut a new crossover this year along with the production version of its Semi-truck. View full article

Tesla isn't done with price cuts it seems. Bloomberg reports that the automaker has dropped the price of all Model 3 models by $1,100 - bringing the base price to $42,900. The reason cited by Tesla was the end of a customer referral program that ended up costing them more than they realize. The program gave new owners six months of free supercharging if they were referred by a friend. Those who referred a number of people got rewarded with various prizes such as getting the next-generation Tesla Roadster. This is the second price cut for Model 3 this year. Last month, Tesla instituted a $2,000 price cut on their lineup to soften the blow of the Federal Tax Credit being cut from $7,000 to $3,750. Source: Bloomberg View full article

A new year marks the beginning of the reduction of the federal tax credit for Tesla - from $7,500 down to $3,750. To counteract the reductions, Tesla has instituted a $2,000 price cut on all models. Here is how the pricing looks like, Model 3 $45,200, Mid-Range $52,200, Long Range $63,200, Performance Model S $77,200, 75D $95,200, 100D $134,200, P100D Model X $83,200, 75D $98,200, 100D $139,200 P100D This reduction comes on the same day that Tesla announced fourth quarter production numbers. The past few months saw Tesla making cuts in colors and equipment to help reach their goal of delivering 100,000 Model S and X vehicles by the end of this year - they narrowly missed it with 99,394 deliveries. For the Model 3, Tesla was able to deliver 145,846 vehicles in 2018. Source: Bloomberg, Tesla Tesla Q4 2018 Vehicle Production & Deliveries, Also Announcing $2,000 Price Reduction in US PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --In Q4, we produced and delivered at the rate of nearly 1,000 vehicles per day, setting new company records for both production and deliveries. Production in Q4 grew to 86,555 vehicles, 8% more than our prior all-time high in Q3. This included: 61,394 Model 3 vehicles, in line with our guidance and 15% more than Q3. 25,161 Model S and X vehicles, consistent with our long-term run rate of approximately 100,000 per year. Q4 deliveries grew to 90,700 vehicles, which was 8% more than our prior all time-high in Q3. This included 63,150 Model 3 (13% growth over Q3), 13,500 Model S, and 14,050 Model X vehicles. In 2018, we delivered a total of 245,240 vehicles: 145,846 Model 3 and 99,394 Model S and X. To put our growth into perspective, we delivered almost as many vehicles in 2018 as we did in all prior years combined. Our Q4 Model 3 deliveries were limited to mid- and higher-priced variants, cash/loan transactions, and North American customers only. More than three quarters of Model 3 orders in Q4 came from new customers, rather than reservation holders. There remain significant opportunities to continue to grow Model 3 sales by expanding to international markets, introducing lower-priced variants and offering leasing. International deliveries in Europe and China will start in February 2019. Expansion of Model 3 sales to other markets, including with a right-hand drive variant, will occur later in 2019. 1,010 Model 3 vehicles and 1,897 Model S and X vehicles were in transit to customers at the end of Q4, and will be delivered in early Q1 2019. Our inventory levels remain the smallest in the automotive industry, and we were able to reduce vehicles in transit to customers by significantly improving our logistics system in North America. Moving beyond the success of Q4, we are taking steps to partially absorb the reduction of the federal EV tax credit (which, as of January 1st, dropped from $7,500 to $3,750). Starting today, we are reducing the price of Model S, Model X and Model 3 vehicles in the U.S. by $2,000. Customers can apply to receive the $3,750 federal tax credit for new deliveries starting on January 1, 2019, and may also be eligible for several state and local electric vehicle and utility incentives, which range up to $4,000. Combined with the reduced costs of maintenance and of charging a Tesla versus paying for gas at the pump – which can result in up to $100 per month or more in savings – this means our vehicles are even more affordable than similarly priced gasoline vehicles. Tesla’s achievements in 2018 likely represent the biggest single-year growth in the history of the automotive industry. We started the year with a delivery run rate of about 120,000 vehicles per year and ended it at more than 350,000 vehicles per year – an increase of almost 3X. As a result, we’re starting to make a tangible impact on accelerating the world to sustainable energy. Additionally, 2018 was the first time in decades that an American car – the Model 3 – was the best-selling premium vehicle in the U.S. for the full year, with U.S. sales of Model 3 roughly double those of the runner up. We want to thank our customers, suppliers, investors, and especially our employees, who worked so hard to accomplish this. View full article

Tesla has finally done it. Over the weekend, the company hit their milestone of producing 5,000 Model 3s in a week only a few hours after the deadline set by CEO Elon Musk - the end of the second quarter. Two Tesla factory workers told Reuters that the 5,000th Model 3 cleared final inspection around 5:00 AM PDT. “We did it!! We either found a way or, by will and inventiveness, created entirely new solutions that were thought impossible. Intense in tents. Transporting entire production lines across the world in massive cargo planes. Whatever. It worked,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk in an email to employees. “I think we just became a real car company.” Reaching this goal was quite hard for the automaker. Numerous delays and production issues caused Tesla to push back production milestones on a seemingly regular basis. The company had to build a makeshift assembly line in a tent within the past month to help bolster production. But can Tesla keep up this output? There are concerns they might not be able to do it. According to one worker, Tesla sent employees from other departments to the Model 3 production line to keep it going. This including shutting down parts of the factory such as the Model S production line. “Reaching it is one thing,” said Dave Sullivan, manager of product analysis for AutoPacific Inc to Bloomberg. “Consistently producing 5,000 per week with outstanding quality is another.” Source: Bloomberg, Reuters View full article

Over two years ago, hundreds of thousands of people put down $1,000 deposit to order their very own Tesla Model 3 with the hoping of getting it in 2018. Flash forward to now and a growing number of those have been asking for their money back. Second Measure, a company that analyzes billions of dollars in anonymized credit and debit card purchases to determine various trends said in a post today that 23 percent of reservation-holders have asked for a refund as of April, a noticeable increase from 12 percent last August. Contrast this with only 8 percent of holders that have configured a Model 3 for production. The remaining 69 percent is a mixture of those waiting for their turn to configure their vehicle and those who are waiting for a refund - numbers Tesla only knows. A Tesla spokesperson told Recode that their internal data "does not align" with Second Measure's data, but would not go into specifics into as to how far off. Tesla has been struggling with Model 3 production for some time, pushing back production targets several times. At the moment, Tesla is targeting "approximately 5,000 Model 3's per week in about two months." Source: Recode, Second Measure View full article

Tesla's 'production hell' is continuing on and is causing the automaker to shut down the Model 3 assembly line for almost a week. Reuters has learned from two sources that Tesla will stop production of the Model 3 from May 26th to 31st in an effort to fix the various bottlenecks on the line. A Tesla spokesperson declined to comment. Tesla warned that there would be 10 days of temporary shutdowns this quarter in an effort to try and get Model 3 production back up and running smoothly. CEO Elon Musk said the shutdowns would be used to make upgrades to reach a goal of building 5,000 Model 3s by the end of June. Already, Tesla stopped production for a few days last month, and also in February. The key problem is Tesla's over-reliance on robots for production, something Musk acknowledges. Source: Reuters View full article

.Over the weekend, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter and announced a new powerful version of the Model 3. The version according to Musk will cost $78,000 and will be "quicker & with better handling. The last line of Musk's tweet made us chuckle since the current Model 3 warranty doesn't permit racing and autocross. Nevertheless, it has brought up questions as to where the $35,000 Model 3 is. For a number of buyers who plopped down the $1,000 deposit, this is the model they are waiting for. Musk gave a roundabout answer to where the low-priced Model 3 is. There is some truth to Musk's madness. Tesla is burning through cash like it is going out of style. According to Bloomberg, the company used up more than a billion in the first quarter. One way Tesla raises money is rolling out their most expensive variants of the Model S, X, and 3. Once they have enough cash, they will begin production of less expensive models. But the Model 3 has proven to be very problematic for Tesla. Various delays and production issues have caused Tesla to push back production targets for the Model 3 again and again. Tesla is aiming to produce 5,000 Model 3s a week by the end of the second quarter. “The idea that it’s supposed to be a car for everyone is kind of laughable. Anyone who wanted a base model may have to wait years out,” said Ivan Drury, senior manager of industry analysis at Edmunds.com. Source: Bloomberg (Subscription Required) View full article

Tesla Model 3 Tear Down! Sandy Munro of Munro & Associates is an engineer who specializes in digging into the details of products. He especially is focused on EVs to make sure they are safe, well built and more. The video's below are very interesting to watch, especially the Teardown one where he clearly says some parts are garbage, some are competitive parts and some are worthy of Government required quality built for long life. The guy seems to know his stuff and it is worth time if you are interested in the nuts and bolts of how a Tesla 3 is built to watch. The Teardown of the model 3 video details: SPECIAL GUEST: Sandy Munro, Munro & Associates, Inc. NEWS: 03:00 - Tesla Model 3 Teardown Analysis 14:55 - The Good Stuff: Model 3 Automatic Drive Modules 26:46 - Are the pieces good? Door Panels, Exterior, etc. 29:00 - Model 3 Battery: Intricate Magic 42:55 - Doctor Data 44:55 - Mechanics of the Model 3 1:11:10 - PHONE CALL: Automation Issues 1:14:29 - PHONE CALL: Model 3 Build Quality 1:18:30 - Johan de Nysschen out at Cadillac PANEL: - John McElroy, Autoline.tv - Gary Vasilash, Automotive Design & Production - Craig Cole, AutoGuide.com Videos are from http://www.autoline.tv/ UPDATE: I missed this the first time I watched it, Sandy Munro was paid to do a Disassemble Benchmark study for another company.

The bad luck is continuing at Tesla. Buzzfeed News reports that Tesla has temporarily shut down the Model 3 production line at the Freemont plant for a week. Employees at Tesla tell Buzzfeed the announcement came suddenly and they have the choice of using vacation days or stay home without pay. Some will get the chance to work in other parts of the plant. A Tesla spokesperson said the shutdown is due to the company wanting to “improve automation.” This is the second time this year that Tesla has shut down the Model 3 production line. Back in late February, reports came out that Tesla had shut down the Model 3 production line. "Our Model 3 production plan includes periods of planned downtime in both Fremont and Gigafactory 1. These periods are used to improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks in order to increase production rates. This is not unusual and is in fact common in production ramps like this," said Tesla in a statement at the time. It should be noted this exact statement was issued again after news broke about the second shutdown. This comes on the heels of an interview last week with CBS' This Morning where CEO Elon Musk admitted the Model 3 had too much new technology and relied too much on robots in the production process. Source: Buzzfeed News, Automotive News (Subscription Required) View full article

Saturday night at Tesla's Fremont, California assembly plant was a sight to behold. "...packed with people Saturday evening as the last hours of the quarter drew to a close. Red couches and tall white tables were set up outside, a DJ played music and a truck selling Vietnamese food was on hand," Bloomberg reports. Was Tesla was celebrating an important milestone? No, the company was using this to try and motivate their workers to get more Model 3s out the door to provide some good news for investors. The past week could be considered one of the worst for the electric car maker. Moody's downgraded Tesla's credit rating further into junk status due to production issues and growing obligations. The NTSB has opened a new investigation into Tesla after a driver was killed when his Model X crashed into a barrier and caught fire. "Unclear if automated control system was active at time of crash. Issues examined include: post-crash fire, steps to make vehicle safe for removal from scene," the NTSB wrote earlier in the week. Yesterday, the NTSB said it was "unhappy" with Tesla releasing information into the crash on their blog. The NTSB has a long history of guarding their investigations very closely. Part of this is due to the board being a small agency, which means it relies quite heavily on the participants involved in an investigation. On Thursday, Tesla recalled 123,000 Model S vehicles built before April 2016 for a power-steering issue. Yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted a number of tweets, saying the company had gone bankrupt. It was an April Fool's joke, but it did not go over so well. In early trading this morning, shares in Tesla dropped as much as 5.7 percent. Tesla estimated they would deliver 10,000 Model 3s by the end of the first quarter. We'll likely find out in the next few days whether or not Tesla was able to pull this off when their first-quarter report comes out. But a number of analysts believe Tesla came up short. Source: Bloomberg View full article

Tesla's production hell seems to be only getting worse than better. Various issues at their Freemont plant has caused the automaker to push back their goal of producing 5,000 Model 3s from late last year to June of this year. This, in turn, has caused some holders of Model 3 reservations to have their order pushed back to 2019. “As we work hard to meet demand, we wanted to let you know that your estimated delivery timing has been adjusted to a slightly later window,” Tesla said in an email to customers. According to Bloomberg, the new date depends on when the reservation was placed and what model was chosen. Tesla is trying to get the more expensive long-range battery model out first before starting production of the cheaper standard battery model. This has buyers of the latter model worried as they might not get the full $7,500 tax credit. The credit begins to phase out once an automaker has built 200,000, something Tesla expects to hit sometime this year. The move has caused some reservation holders to take to various forums and Twitter to complain. Others are deciding to jump ship and buy a Chevrolet Bolt. Reuters reports that Chevrolet dealers in California are seeing a noticeable increase of Tesla shoppers interested in the Bolt. “We’re getting the Tesla people who wanted their Model 3. We ask them, ‘What other cars are you interested in?’ They’re mostly Tesla. But they want the car now. They don’t want to wait,” said Yev Kaplinskiy of Stewart Chevrolet. Kaplinskiy said they sold 15 Bolts last weekend. Chevrolet is taking advantage of the delay by emailing some prospective buyers this week with the message of, “Bolt EV: Now available.” Source: Bloomberg, Reuters View full article

Earlier this week, Tesla announced its quarterly production figures and the Model 3 is getting off to a slower start than expected. In a statement, Tesla said that it had delivered a total of 26,150 vehicles in the third quarter. Here is how it breaks down, Model S: 14,065 Units Model X: 11,865 Units Model 3: 220 Units Only 260 Model 3s were built in the third quarter. Tesla said the reason for the small production of Model 3s was due to "production bottlenecks." The company didn't go into detail as what the bottleneck is. This isn't a good start as Tesla promised to build 5,000 Model 3s by the end of the year. "It is important to emphasize that there are no fundamental issues with the Model 3 production or supply chain. We understand what needs to be fixed and we are confident of addressing the manufacturing bottleneck issues in the near-term," said Tesla. Source: Tesla Press Release is on Page 2 Tesla Q3 2017 Vehicle Deliveries and Production PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 02, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In Q3, Tesla delivered 26,150 vehicles, of which 14,065 were Model S, 11,865 were Model X, and 220 were Model 3. This was our all-time best quarter for Model S and X deliveries, representing a 4.5% increase over Q3 2016, our previous best quarter, and a 17.7% increase over Q2 2017. We had previously indicated that second half Model S and X deliveries would likely exceed first half deliveries of 47,077, but we now expect to exceed that by several thousand vehicles. In total, we expect to deliver about 100,000 Model S and X vehicles in 2017, which would be a 31% increase over 2016. In addition to Q3 deliveries, about 4,820 Model S and X vehicles were in transit to customers at the end of the quarter. These will be counted as deliveries in Q4 2017. Q3 production totaled 25,336 vehicles, with 260 of them being Model 3. Model 3 production was less than anticipated due to production bottlenecks. Although the vast majority of manufacturing subsystems at both our California car plant and our Nevada Gigafactory are able to operate at high rate, a handful have taken longer to activate than expected. It is important to emphasize that there are no fundamental issues with the Model 3 production or supply chain. We understand what needs to be fixed and we are confident of addressing the manufacturing bottleneck issues in the near-term. Our delivery count should be viewed as slightly conservative, as we only count a car as delivered if it is transferred to the customer and all paperwork is correct. Final numbers could vary by up to 0.5%. Tesla vehicle deliveries represent only one measure of the company's financial performance and should not be relied on as an indicator of quarterly financial results, which depend on a variety of factors, including the cost of sales, foreign exchange movements and mix of directly leased vehicles. View full article