As part of his current trip across Europe and Asia, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stopped by the automaker’s France headquarters in Chambourcy for a special event for Tesla owners. Musk delivered a quick speech thanking local owners for their support of Tesla and then stayed for a Q&A during which he shared a few new tidbits of information.
When asked about when we will get to see pictures of the Model 3, Musk answered:
“The first pictures of the Model 3 will be end of March… I am being a little coy here, we are not gonna show everything about the Model 3 until a lot closer to production time.”
An audience member asked for more details, but as it is often the case when it comes to future products, Musk refused to elaborate. In the past, the CEO said Tesla planned to start Model 3 production toward the end of 2017, while the “end of March” event has been referred to as an “unveiling”.
Musk often said that Tesla always aims to improve on concepts the company unveils and bring to market production vehicles that are even more compelling than the prototypes. For example, Tesla first unveiled the Model X in 2012. Musk referred to the version of the vehicle as a “pre-alpha prototype” and improved on it up until the unveiling of the production version last September.
The production version included quite a few features that either were not on the concept or talked about during the first unveiling, including a new “operating room-level” air filtering system, auto-presenting front doors and the panoramic windshield.
Musk’s “not gonna show everything” comment could indicate a similar unveiling plan for the Model 3 where some features are left out of the concept and only unveiled before production. The unveiling of the prototype would mainly act as a showcasing of design, size and main features, while allowing Tesla to take reservations and gauge demand.
During the Q&A, Musk also offered a timeline for Tesla’s plan to allow mirroring of apps from phones to the center consoles, which he elaborated on during a recent meeting in Hong Kong. In France, the CEO said that the company plans to introduce the feature around the “middle of the year” and added that it is harder than you would think.
Here’s the Q&A:
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He’d better be showing at least 80% of “everything” when they start taking deposits.
If the initial reveal flops, the stock price will likely nosedive which will piss off a lot of faithful owners who are also investors.
Seriously. He did mention in the video he had one hour of sleep during the last 48 hours.
Finally a rational opinion of what’s likely to be shown in March. It would be crazy for Tesla to show all their cards (to their competition) when they’re at least 18 months away from production. Steven: As long as the deposit is refundable, they are free to change things as much as they want. And of course there’s no problem if they add lots of things on top of what they show. No reason to expect they will show 80% of everything…. why should they They just need to get expectations into the right ball park and then save a few surprises for the actual unveiling in late 2017.
There’s not room to “add lots of things” without significantly exceeding the price target and pretty soon you’re looking at a Model S, new or used.