Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter this afternoon to announce an unexpected product launch event on October 17th, just a week away. He further noted that the expected Tesla/SolarCity announcement, which he previously hoped to hold at the end of the month, would indeed be on October 28th…
We have heard a number of things about the SolarCity event which many expect to also mark the closing of the deal. Fred broke the news of the more dense Powerpack 2.0 made with the new 2170 cells manufactured at the Gigafactory as well as the likely Solar Roof product which we’ve heard resembles an existing kickstart project. There will likely be many more surprises including the packaging of solar/storage/backup/charging/vehicles. I’d of course like to see a DC charging option and a Tesla Inverter/charge controller…just in time for the holidays!
As for the 17th event, we haven’t heard specifics but can dip into speculation that the event will revolve around Autopilot, a hot topic of late. One possible scenario would be a new Autopilot 2.0 hardware announcement with hopeful retrofit upgrades to recent existing vehicles. We’ve seen some previews of what this will be like. Another possible topic of conversation on the 17th will be updates to Autopilot software stack which we are tracking closely.
Tesla product unveiling on the 17th (unexpected by most), followed by Tesla/SolarCity on the 28th
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 9, 2016
There could possibly be some Model 3 announcement updates which could include higher-end optional specs and perhaps a closer look at what the final, pencils down design will look like. We heard a long time ago that the top end of Model 3 will go from 0-60 in under 4 seconds and will have a range of over 300 miles. More recently (3 mos ago) we heard that the internal engine inverter for the model 3 would be a beast.
Finally, something interesting happened this week: Tesla discontinued the 60kWh option on the Model X (as well as some color options and a more expensive rear seat) which raises the base price significantly. We’re curious about the reasons why on this but with a week before a major event, moves like this are often clues to bigger changes.
For those with a Tesla/SolarCity financial interest, Musk also tweeted out that TSLA/SCTY financing would not be needed for Q4 and likely Q1 2017 either which will put some minds at ease.
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