Is the Tesla Model 3 hiding under this sheet?

S'toon · Aug 5, 2015

The Tesla Model 3 is perhaps the most anticipated car of the past decade. With a multi-billion-dollar battery gigafactory beginning construction long before as many as 500,000 Model 3s per year start to roll off the company's Fremont assembly line, it truly carries the destiny of this electric vehicle company upon its wheels. It also holds the hopes and aspirations of the many thousands who look to this "affordable Tesla" to rescue them from the ICE age.

With its official reveal expected in March of 2016 – eight months from now – it's only natural that the search for hints and clues about its appearance is already in full effect. One of the most solid leads we've seen so far comes to us from the very busy Tesla Motors Club forum, where user "hockeythug" posted a screen capture from a video piece on Elon Musk by the Australian version of 60 Minutes.

The image is a wide shot of the Tesla design studio where masses of clay are carved into realistic representations of a stylist's vision. While the camera crew is gathered around a partially-uncovered Model X, across the room a couple other automotive sculptures sit, their exact identities concealed by cloths.

Now, we know from Tim Urban, the author of a (very awesome) in-depth Wait But Why piece titled "How Tesla Will Change The World" that a clay model of the Tesla 3 already exists, as he says in that essay chief designer Franz von Holzhausen showed it to him. We can't definitively say which of the earthen figures, if any, is the car in question, but using deductive reasoning and our government-issued license to speculate (not a real thing), we believe it could very well be the one circled in the image above.

<snip>

Full article at:
http://www.autoblog.com/2015/08/05/tesla-model-3-hiding/

I also note the Lotus submarine in the background :tongue:

Saghost · Aug 5, 2015

Yes, it is.

I think.

My belief is that this is the clay model with two different versions (I think sedan and SUV) of the Model 3 that waitbuywhy mentioned. We've been talking about this still taken from the Australian 60 minutes video it for a while in the Model X and Model 3 forums...
Walter

pete8314 · Aug 5, 2015

You never know. They also have the James Bond Lotus in the background, so this could easily be a staged photo. Or maybe the Lotus is Model 3

Saghost · Aug 5, 2015

pete8314 said:
You never know. They also have the James Bond Lotus in the background, so this could easily be a staged photo. Or maybe the Lotus is Model 3

It's actually a still capture out of a video from the Australian 60 minutes, as I mentioned above:

See here, at about 5:23 - there's a panning shot of the design studio before they interview some lead designer types. Now Tesla may have done all sorts of creative things with the studio before the shot, but I don't actually think they did - waitbutwhy saw a model 3 clay model with two different sides which I'm pretty sure is what's under the cover.

Here, and here:

I had a chance to visit the Tesla design studio (no pictures allowed), where there were designers sketching car designs on computer screens and, on the other side of the room, full-size car models made of clay. An actual-size clay version of the upcoming Model 3 was surrounded by specialists sculpting it with tiny instruments and blades, shaving off fractions of a millimeter to examine the way light bounced off the curves.

The studio, which I described in the last post, is a shiny playroom of art and physics. Von Holzhausen showed me a full-size clay car that was simultaneously testing two different possible designs for the upcoming Model 3 by making the two halves of the model different. He explained how precise everything about car design is and how “a difference of a quarter millimeter can spread itself across the entire car.”

wallet.dat · Aug 5, 2015

Von Holzhausen showed me a full-size clay car that was simultaneously testing two different possible designs for the upcoming Model 3 by making the two halves of the model different.

Ah, that explains the lack of symmetry beneath the cover. For a moment I was afraid they were going to release a weirdmobile

Saghost · Aug 5, 2015

wallet.dat said:
Ah, that explains the lack of symmetry beneath the cover. For a moment I was afraid they were going to release a weirdmobile

From the proportions, my bet is that one is the much discussed CUV variant and the other a sedan/coupe.

mspohr · Aug 5, 2015

Saghost said:
From the proportions, my bet is that one is the much discussed CUV variant and the other a sedan/coupe.

It also seems to be much "pointier" in the front with a nose that sticks out... could help with aerodynamics.

renim · Aug 5, 2015

mspohr said:
It also seems to be much "pointier" in the front with a nose that sticks out... could help with aerodynamics.

that nose looks really similar to an Mitsubishi ASX, as does the vehicle width.

dpeilow · Aug 5, 2015

You may have noticed in that article it takes its source from this forum, therefore there wasn't really the need to start another thread...

S'toon · Aug 5, 2015

dpeilow said:
You may have noticed in that article it takes its source from this forum, therefore there wasn't really the need to start another thread...

Actually, I did miss that part. Sorry.

mspohr · Aug 6, 2015

dpeilow said:
You may have noticed in that article it takes its source from this forum, therefore there wasn't really the need to start another thread...

This forum has become self aware.

Omer · Aug 7, 2015

Clay model shown

Are These Tesla Model 3 Prototypes Under Those Sheets? (Video)

Not sure if this has been posted yet. If so, mods please delete.

Model3G · Aug 7, 2015

Anyone seeing 4 doors?
Any speculation on the cross between the S and X?

BrianC · Aug 7, 2015

I dont know how serious I can take something that claims Iron Man is inspired by Elon. IM has been around longer that he has been alive

.

That would be a MX not the 3 btw.

S'toon · Aug 7, 2015

You made the same mistake I did when I posted about the clay models. You missed the part where they referred to the TMC Forums.

A burning desire for any advance information about the Model 3 caused a few members of the Tesla Motors Club forum to flag a recent video profile of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, which ran on the Australian version of 60 Minutes.

Spurkey · Aug 7, 2015

BrianC said:
I dont know how serious I can take something that claims Iron Man is inspired by Elon. IM has been around longer that he has been alive .

Robert Downey Jr. has long said he's taken inspiration for movie-Tony-Stark from Elon. RDJr got a personal tour of SpaceX provided by Elon in 2007 before the first movie, plus they put Elon in the second movie.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/true-story-elon-musk-robert-downey-jr-tony-stark-ashlee-vance

On a related note - nothing in the first article mentions Iron Man...

Newb · Aug 7, 2015

S'toon said:
You made the same mistake I did when I posted about the clay models. You missed the part where they referred to the TMC Forums.

They've referred to the wrong thread, though. It's been discussed here: Model 3 to be sedan AND crossover - Page 9

Don't need the credits for that, but just sayin'.

Trev Page · Sep 30, 2015

Everyone take a good close look at the nose of the Model 3 clay model hiding under the black fabric (circled in red).

As I mentioned before in the Model X thread, I think Tesla designed a new look for the front end of their brand for Model 3 and carried it over to the Model X to begin the transition. Model S should follow suit before too long.

Lots of pictures from the Model X reveal event show a pointy snout with raked back headlights:

Twiddler · Sep 30, 2015

Interesting to look at the other car under a sheet - it looks to be the size of the model S, but does not have the nose bulge that you would expect from its nosecone, but rather looks like the smaller (model 3?) car next to it. Could this in fact be the updated "Model S 2.0"?

EDIT: Perhaps my above post was not clear. I am not speaking of the car circled in red, but the car to the RIGHT of it in the picture.

Trev Page · Sep 30, 2015

No. The consensus is the car circled in red is the Model 3 clay model. Wait but why blogger mentioned seeing the Model 3 clay model that was half sedan and half crossover while on a visit interviewing Elon.

Is the Tesla Model 3 hiding under this sheet?

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