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Model 3 & the Roadster "Special"

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Just tweeted by Tesla:

Tesla Model III to challenge BMW 3 Series - World Exclusive | Auto Express

“We were going to call it model E for a while and then Ford sued us saying it wanted to use the Model E – I thought this is crazy, Ford’s trying to kill sex! So we’ll have to think of another name.
“The new model is going to be called Model III, we’ll have three bars to represent it and it’ll be S III X!”

Tesla’s very first car, the Roadster, was based on a lightweight Lotus Elise chassis and launched back in 2008. Its range of 245 miles is still pretty impressive, but Tesla boss Elon Musk is planning an upgrade for owners that will see that range increase to about 400 miles.
“The Roadster had an old generation battery,” he told us. “We’ll upgrade it to a new generation battery pack and it should have a range of about 400 miles, which will allow you to drive from LA to San Francisco non-stop.”


 
"This new plant will produce batteries for all Tesla models, plus customers (rumoured to include Mercedes and Nissan) and a stationary storage programme to store energy from solar and wind farms."

The above is new. Tesla to make batteries for LEAF or new Infiniti sedan?

 
Based on this I'm guessing they go with S3X4. The letters will be for the premium tier vehicles and the numbers will be for the standard tier vehicles. If you choose the right font for the 4 it can still look like a "y" and so still spells sexy sorta.

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I also don't see why for the Model 3 they couldn't just have the 3 bars going sideways instead just like with their tesla logo. the roman numeral 3 is three bars but who says you can't rotate them?


yup looks pretty good. Model 4 is a roman numeral too.

Model_Sexy.png


or....

Model_Sexy2.png
 
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Based on this I'm guessing they go with S3X4. The letters will be for the premium tier vehicles and the numbers will be for the standard tier vehicles. If you choose the right font for the 4 it can still look like a "y" and so still spells sexy sorta.

- - - Updated - - -

I also don't see why for the Model 3 they couldn't just have the 3 bars going sideways instead just like with their tesla logo. the roman numeral 3 is three bars but who says you can't rotate them?


yup looks pretty good. Model 4 is a roman numeral too.

View attachment 53826

or....

View attachment 53827

Yup, looks great, and the naming scheme works too

IIRC, this also would be the first time a major announcement/Elon infodump has come from an interview rather than a blogpost.

I also wonder if this was supposed to be released now, or if Elon said a bit too much. I mean, we haven't even seen the X yet, and the REVEAL of III is 2 years off
 
The original Roadster batterypack had cells with 2200mAh (model S has 3100mAh cells)
Current cells have 4000mAh, so they would just need to replace the cells, and tweak some settings, the rest would be the same.
Price would stay the same as the
Given that the Roadster had a 56KW battery, and 2200 -> 4000 is a increase of 81%
81%*56=101KW pack if they keep the same amount of cells. But that would an overkill for the small roadster so maybe the reduced the cell amount by 15%-20% and will offer a 85KW pack.


more information about current cells.
The progression of the 18650 battery : teslamotors
 
I think it largely depends on the individual...I did a 3,500 km journey to the east coast last fall (and am planning to do it again this year)...comfort was not an issue for me, however, I was travelling alone...I'm not sure I could talk the wife into this journey without her insisting that we take the S...

A huge reason I sold the Roadster to switch to the S was the range. Wanted to be able to travel with ease. But now that I've been driving the S would be hard to take a long road trip with the Roadster. The S is just so cushy.